Here We Unite Our Past and Future
by Azurevi
Summary: Kagome returns to the feudal era after a five year absence, Miroku and Sango have a family but what's happened to Inuyasha while she was away? Reunitedness and demon-hunting! Humor, romance, a little of everything, rated M to be safe. Newly edited!
1. Chapter 1

The only thing I own from this story are the headaches I have received from sitting in front of a computer screen for too long writing it! Seriously folks, Inuyasha is not my puppy.

Chapter 1.

Kagome ran the flat square hat around and around in her hands. _What now?_ She thought. High school was long gone; it had been so much easier when she didn't have to hop back in forth from the feudal era. Even so, school was so full of drama she almost wished some of the girls had been demons so she could shoot them. Seriously, a sacred arrow could have only improved matters, but she restrained herself. College was even easier; she'd double-majored in emergency medical training and medieval history, Kaede would have been proud. All of her friends were looking at graduate schools but something was missing for her that kept her unmotivated.

She looked up at the picture on her desk; Inuyasha was in it, and Sango, Miroku, and Shippou. It was taken in the blissful week after they had defeated Naraku. Kaede held the camera, Kagome was on Inuyasha's back, rubbing his ears and grinning wider than seemed possible, Inuyasha looked furious, one arm reaching back to get her off and the other holding Shippou's madly kicking little body away from him. Sango and Miroku stood arm-in-arm, her blushing madly, him with his hand hovering centimeters from her derriere.

All of her friends in the present thought that this picture was taken at a festival or costume party of some sort and she didn't bother to correct them. Despite that it made her smile every time she looked at it, it summed up how she felt. She didn't belong here. It wasn't just the usual depressed feeling of disjointedness either. She really didn't belong, she couldn't talk to any of her friends about some of the most important times of her life, and there was something else that kept her completely separate from them…

Inuyasha had asked how she had gotten rid of the Jewel of Four Souls but she just smiled and didn't tell him. It was better that he didn't know.

When they had been trapped in the well and she had to choose her wish of the jewel she had wished it to disappear. It had been the right wish and the jewel had disappeared but she had realized later, when she was stuck on her side of the well that it had disappeared back into her body. In their last battle she had cracked one of her ribs and had to get an xray. The jewel showed on it, a perfect sphere made of something that wasn't flesh or bone.

Oddly enough the jewel didn't bother her at all. In fact, it invigorated her; it also seemed to be slowing down the rate that she was aging. At twenty two she still looked seventeen. At bars this was an annoyance but it did make her friends jealous. It also meant that for every hour of studying she did she had to spend two hours working on her spiritual abilities just to keep the powers of the jewel contained. She could purify a city block in downtown Tokyo on a good day.

In addition to the jewel she had also brought some items back with her from the feudal era, specifically from Naraku's castle that were considered priceless artifacts in her time. Well, not entirely priceless to the right person. It paid for her college and Souta's… and let her mother be financially secure for life, but she didn't know about that part yet. It was all set aside in a fund for her.

There was a tap on her door that snapped Kagome out of her reverie. "May I come in?" Her mother asked.

"Yeah." She began packing again in earnest, ready to leave the dorm room behind.

Kun-Loon came in and looked around. "My goodness, you're almost ready to leave." She exclaimed. "I brought you something, a graduation present from Souta and me." She handed a long slender box with trembling hands to her daughter.

_Why's she so nervous?_ Kagome wondered, taking it from her. She opened the glossy white package with interest; there was nothing she had asked for, nothing that she could think of that she wanted.

Wrapped in peach tissue inside was the most beautiful bow and quiver she had ever seen. The polished surface of the bow gleamed darkly and a coiled pile of bow strings were wrapped around the soft leather of the embroidered quiver.

"You'll need it when you go." Kun-Loon said simply.

"Mom…" She was momentarily speechless, then a little angry. Were they intentionally trying to remind her of what she could never be? Of the other half of her heart that she had left behind in the feudal era? She looked up at her mother with confused and hurt eyes.

"We want you to please visit on the holidays." Kagome saw tears in her mother's eyes but a smile on her face. "We love you so much and we're so proud of you."

Kagome shook her head slowly, trying to wrap her mind around the magnitude of what her mother was saying. "I can't mom. You know that, I belong here."

It was her mother's turn to shake her head. "No sweetheart, you belong in both places, it's been five years Kagome. It's time to go to your other home."

"But the well…"

"My darling, you know why the well stopped working." Her mother paused, hoping Kagome would realize. After a long minute she sighed. "You had to come home, you were too conflicted about where you belonged. I think you know where that is now."

Kagome was still speechless, it was true that over the years she felt that she had made the wrong decision, but damnit it had been her choice. Either way she left someone behind. She remembered the last conversation she had with Inuyasha five years ago, when she was seventeen and Naraku had been defeated.

"_Will you stay with me now?" Inuyasha asked, caressing her cheek with one hand as they sat under the stars. "Do you want to?"_

"_Oh Inuyasha. I told you two years ago that I wanted to be with you. That hasn't changed." She blushed and looked away, embarrassed. "I told you in Kaguya's castle how I felt."_

_To her surprise he didn't blush but tilted her face to his with one clawed finger. "Ka… Gome…" He murmured and brought his lips to hers._

_She closed her eyes in anticipation and a soul collector had flown overhead with a detached soul in its grasp._

_He froze and tracked it with his eyes, she opened hers to see him looking down at her with a longing that was only comparable to a starved man presented with a banquet made in his honor. The look didn't embarrass her, but the slight sideways glance he gave the departing soul collector had shattered her._

"_Oh Inuyasha." She touched his forehead with hers. When he moved forward to kiss her she had placed her finger against his lips. "When are you going to realize that you are in love with the idea of Kikyo? With her soul… which is in me."She stood then and placed her hand on his cheek. " I love you exactly as you are, alive and a half-demon. I am in love with your soul Inuyasha… But I can't compete with your memory of Kikyou anymore."_

She'd shrugged into her backpack and left down the well, it didn't transport her back to the feudal era again.

Kun-Loon saw the stubborn resolve settle on her daughter's lovely features. She admired the resemblance to herself when she was younger, the softness of the eyes and mouth, but the bone structure and spirit were all from her father's side, angles and strength. "Don't make me disown you Kagome Higurashi."

This caused Kagome to stumble over the words she had been planning to say and glare at her mother. Two powerful forces of stubbornness met and with the already fractured resolve hindering her, Kagome caved. She felt a rueful smile spread on her face.

"We'll go home and talk about it Mom."

* * *

Sango stepped up to the shrine, the twin girls following mimicking her every move, flowers with missing petals gripped tightly in tiny hands.

The sacred tree shaded the small shelter where a man lay prone as he had for over six months. After Kikyou last visited and stabbed Inuyasha in the back… literally… Inuyasha had said one word and laid down at the base of the sacred tree, never intending to revive.

"Kagome…"

Miroku had been researching furiously since he went into a coma, the results hadn't been heartening. From what they had found the reaction Inuyasha was having only happened to mated demons, mated demons who had lost their partners. He had been fading for years, ever since Kagome left for good. But Kikyou had destroyed the last vistages of his strength. She had been his last real link to Kagome, but trying to kill him proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she wasn't, and would never be, Kagome.

Every few weeks Kikyou had come to laugh at Inuyasha's body at the sacred tree until Sango tried to knock all of her teeth into her throat with her haraikotsu.

Now she and the girls were the only visitors.

"Ojisan, please get better now." The little girl with the serious blue eyes put her flowers on Inuyasha's chest.

Sango carefully knelt around her large rounded stomach and placed a kiss on the half-demon's forehead. "Oh Inuyasha, please wake up soon, the leaves are beginning to change colors and the girls want to play in them with you." She sighed and patted her stomach with a gentle smile. "I hoped to tell you about your next godchild before I started to show… Who's going to teach the children bad table manners now?"

A strong aura enveloped her as a hand slid slowly down her back towards her butt.

"Stop there monk if you know what's good for you."

Miroku chuckled and encircled her belly instead. "It's done Sango, now all we can do is wait."

"I believe that she will come for him. They were always there for each other." Sango entwined her fingers with Miroku's as their daughters contentedly braided Inuyasha's long silver hair. "She has to."

* * *

Kagome carefully turned her steaming tea cup in her hands, circling it over and over until the pads of her fingers felt scorched. She had been fighting a nearly fruitless internal battle for six months since her mother told her to go back to the feudal era. To go or not to go, that was the question. Inuyasha had never come for her, that was proof enough that he had made his choice.

But maybe the well didn't work for him because she had the jewel…

No, that didn't make sense. She'd always had the jewel when Inuyasha came to get her, for some reason he didn't need it to travel. Maybe she didn't need it either, maybe it didn't work when she thought he didn't want her with him anymore. Could the well function on something as simple as trust?

A handsome young man with an ancient chest stopped at the table and ruffled her bangs. "Hey Sis, why the long face? I thought you would be long gone by now."

"It's not as simple as that." Kagome sipped some of her tea and eyed the chest curiously. "What's in there?"

"No idea, there's tons of these in the storage house, just like that sword that Inuyasha took back through the well that one time." He put on a pair of latex gloves and carefully unlatched the lid.

"Ooh, a scroll. Never seen one of those before." Kagome grinned and finished her tea cup. "What's it say?"

"I dunno, it's got a seal on it, old Japanese but if I can just clean the dust off…" Souta gently rubbed a Q-tip along the seal, revealing the message underneath character by character. "Open by… Higorashi… only?" He looked up at his sister with a quirked eyebrow. "But the Higorashi's have lived here forever."

"Wait Souta, there's another character there at the end." Curious despite herself, Kagome leaned in. "Hey… That's…"

"Your name." He said, looking up slowly to meet her eyes.

* * *

"Inuyasha." A cold, smokey voice said slowly. A woman with all the beauty and life of a porcelain doll stepped from behind the sacred tree.

Air escaped the half-demon's lips in a sigh. "K… go… me."

Kikyou recoiled like she'd been slapped. He never mistook her for that _girl_, always the other way around. Kagome was supposed to be a painful reminder of _her_.

"Men are so typical, even you, a half man just want what you cannot have." She laughed, high and cold. "Still… it causes you pain to be reminded of her, so I will stay nearby so you can smell her on me."

The dead priestess pulled an arrow out of her quiver and threaded it through the messy braids in his silvered hair. "You shall never see her again. That causes me much satisfaction."

* * *

Kagome looked up slowly from the unfurled scroll. "Well… This is unexpected."

"What's it say?" Souta looked like a little kid again, jumping from foot to foot eagerly. "Is it about Inuyasha? Are you going back?"

She looked back down, sifting through to words numbly. It was weathered and the unreadable in places but what she could gather was that Inuyasha had chosen a mate, and now for some reason he was in a coma and Miroku wanted her to come back to the feudal era.

Her emotions warred, on one hand, her soul was decimated that he had taken a mate, on the other, he was in desperate trouble and needed her. She had never been able to stay away when he needed her before. God she was pathetic.

Kagome stood, tucking the scroll in her belt and went upstairs to pack.

It didn't take long, all of her essentials were still packed from moving and since her travels back and forth from the feudal era she always included camping basics as essentials. All she really needed to do was change.

Leaving Inuyasha had been a brutal wake-up call for her. Barely a month went by before she was attacked for the first time in her time. She'd been lucky and escaped before the thug could do more than slap her hard and get her clothes ripped and dirty from falling down. Still she had signed up for self-defense that night and started training.

For some reason trouble seemed to come to her, she suspected the jewel being back inside her body played no small part in that. Usually she could change someone's intentions by just touching them, purifying them, but not always. She'd learned to always be prepared for anything. Everyone had personal demons and a sacred arrow wasn't always the best answer.

She dressed in a tank top, jeans and what Souta called her "shit-kicker" boots, knee-high doc martins that had indeed kicked the shit out of several ill-intended individuals. Her demon-hide jacket went into her bag, the material was a last gift from Sango—the soft leather from a water demon was water-proof and extremely durable. The only tricky thing had been finding someone in her era to make the coat.

Before lacing up her right boot she strapped a slim dagger to her calf over her jeans, tucking them into the boots. In addition to protecting herself from thugs who were naturally drawn to her without even knowing it was the jewel that lured them, she had discovered that there were more demons lurking in her era than she ever thought possible. People just didn't believe in them anymore and what they perceived as impossible they simply couldn't see.

The amount of "accidents" were caused by demons was unbelievable; car wrecks, natural disasters, arson and old-fashioned murder. Almost all of the serial killers who weren't caught were demons who went on a killing spree before being taken down by someone like her, or occasionally by someone who had no idea that they slayed a demon when they thought they ran over a speed bump.

She'd told Souta on more than one occasion that she was convinced that the best weapon modern demon slayers had was a Volvo.

The last thing to go on was her bow and quiver. She never could bring herself to use a cross-bow, it felt too much like cheating.

"Tell mom where I went ok?" She yelled at Souta as she ran past with her new backpack—a high school graduation gift from her grandpa.

"Like I'd have to." Souta rolled his eyes and went back to the rest of the contents of the chest.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

Kagome pulled herself slowly out of the bone eaters well on the feudal side. The area was overgrown, unkept and she wondered for the hundredth time if this was a good idea. Her arrival had been less than glamorous, the villagers had started throwing demon carcasses into the well again and she managed to not get any on her clothes but covered her arms when she slumped sideways from the sudden weight of her backpack. A particularly noxious clump of goo clung to her elbow like some kind of demon super glue snot.

A raven, thinking that her bandanna was food, swooped down and pulled it right off her head, taking some of her hairs with it.

"OW!" She exclaimed, rubbing the now tender spot. "Oh yeah, that was a great start, very good sign, this is going to work out just fine." She grumbled.

She managed to stand outside the well without further incident and pulled her back pack up by the nylon rope she had attached to the straps. It was a back packing backpack that held just under eighty liters and she almost overbalanced twice before getting it safely out of the well. Once everything was on, adjusted and offering no other excuse to stall she set off at a brisk pace towards the village, settling between the urge to run and the urge to hide and forget the whole thing. Her mother had brought a good point when they had argued in her dormitory later.

"_Several of your friends are going abroad for a year after college, why can't you go to? You'll just be going a bit farther."_

A whole heck of a lot farther. Kagome thought to herself, slowing down her step as she crested a hill and saw the village laid out before her. It looked amazingly the same, with the rice fields stretching in between her and the houses. The only difference she noticed was a large building, bigger than a temple, set into the far hillside.

She contemplated it as she forced her feet to keep moving. She could just make out a large courtyard and wide wrapping porches. Someone important must live there. She thought to herself as she reached the closest houses. The first person to see her dropped the firewood they had been carrying and bowed deeply.

"L-Lady K-Kagome." He stammered looking stunned by her appearance and repulsed by the smell of demon carcass on her. She vaguely recognized the young man as a boy who had fetched water for Kaede when she performed her cleansing ceremonies.

"Hello, I'm looking for Kaede…" Kagome spoke quickly to hide her embarrassment at not remembering his name, he had remembered hers after all.

"Kaede has passed priestess." He told her with genuine sorrow in his tone.

The news hit her like a minivan. Kaede, her mentor, gone. "Oh… Then perhaps my friends Sango the demon slayer or Miroku the… monk. Or… " She trailed off again, cursing herself for being so hesitant to say Inuyasha's name.

"Lady Sango is retired my lady, but she can usually be found at the school."

_Retired?_ Kagome wondered. _Why's she retired? She wasn't that much older than me!_ She smiled at the young man in gratitude and asked, "Can you direct me to this school please?"

He looked startled again and raised a shaking hand to point at the large house that had interested her.

She bowed, said thank you, and was moving again before he had time to completely recover.

The village being so small didn't help her gather her courage before she was facing a long staircase. _Why are there always a million stairs up to these things?_ She bemoaned before resignedly beginning up them with her giant backpack and smaller daypack. Her legs were screaming in protest halfway up.

"Come on." She scolded the offending appendages. "You are NOT that out of shape."

But you usually aren't carrying all of your worldly possessions when you go jogging. They yelled back at her. Or at least that's what she imagined they were saying.

This made Kagome panic a little. _Why, oh why did I think that they would accept me? Even remember me? Where will I live? What will I do for income? Enchant arrows and look for shiny things?_

She sat heavily on the stair that was almost precisely halfway up and tried to gather her courage for the rest of the way up.

* * *

A bundle of leaves hit Miroku in the face and he keeled over backwards, tongue out to the side, eyes crossed.

"Noooo! Daddy dead!" A tiny girl with jet black hair and dark blue eyes wrapped her small fists in his robes. "Why!"

"Because you killed me!" Miroku snatched up the girl and tickled her relentlessly.

Her giggling made him smile and toss her in the air. She had his hair and eyes but her mother's smile, he'd give her anything when she smiled at him like that.

"Miroku!" The devil herself called from the porch. "The alarm on the stairs just went off, someone is coming up." She put her fists on her hips and summoned her best stern look. Miroku was impressed that she could find her hips to put her fists on around her gigantic stomach. "If they're human make sure they get here in time for supper."

"Oji!" The little girl cried, her eyes lighting in delight.

"No baby, Inuyasha set half of these alarms, he knows where they are." Sango smiled gently at her eldest daughter, trying to conceal the worry in her eyes.

"We'll go check it out." Miroku assured her, picking up his Shakujou in one hand and offering the other to his little girl. "Come on Omi."

"Bingle stick!" She reached for his staff while he heaved a long-suffering sigh and looked at Sango.

"Don't look at me monk, I'm not the one who taught her to call it that." With an ill-concealed grin she went back inside.

_Stupid Inuyasha_. He mentally grumbled, so engrossed in his internal griping that he stubbed his toe on the edge of a raised flagstone. "Stupid rock!" He hopped up and down holding his foot, growling incoherently under his breath.

"Daddy!" Omi gasped, looking highly offended in the face of such brazen language.

Miroku heaved a second sigh and recaptured his daughter's hand. They walked to the top of the stairs, Miroku limping slightly and nearly choking on his suppressed curses.

It was early fall and the leaves were just beginning to change. They had chosen the ideal spot to build their school half a decade before, with a large flat area for Sango's combat and self-defense training and plenty of mountain brooks around with large flat rocks where Miroku guided the daily meditation sessions. It was paradise for both of them… In spite of the regular demon attacks.

They had been even worse now that Sango was pregnant again. Miroku frowned, all were seeking revenge or bragging rights or just drawn to the place for the view. _Ok, so not many for the view_. But still, the increased attacks worried him. She had just over a month to go before she was supposed to go into labor (_please let it be a boy!)_ and every week they had had more attacks than the last.

Maybe the demons were preparing for the holiday season, have a demon slayer kill under their belt before the new year.

The last thought made him shudder, he was a very visual person and while this usually led to elaborate fantasies—all about Sango of course…-it also meant that he could easily picture her head mounted on some demon's trophy wall. The very idea made him ill. Not to mention a little disgusted with himself, what kind of husband thought of that kind of thing? Not a normal one no doubt. _It must be the job, it's finally getting to me._

They had circled the building and reached the top of the stairs. He could just make out a very misshapen person halfway down the stairs in the vibrant orange dusk light.

"Daddy? Is a demon?" Omi asked, squinting as well. "Not bad-feeling, very good." She tugged Miroku's hand and stepped down the first stair.

From an early age she had been sensitive to auras. She was the first to know when demons were coming, when priestesses or other spiritual people were approaching and Inuyasha always lost when they played hide-and-seek. It also probably didn't help that he let her win. But the thing that really set her apart from her mother and father was her ability to distinguish auras. Like Inuyasha's sense of smell, each person, demon—or half demon for that matter—had a distinct aura and even at barely three she could pick people she knew out of a crowd. With her eyes closed.

Because of this Miroku trusted her judgment more than most fathers trusted their daughters, and so he let her lead him down.

They stopped when they were five stairs away from the figure. It was hard for him to see because of the odd lighting, but it looked like what he had taken to be an abnormality appeared to be a pack of some sort. The pack was attached to a girl with long black hair and slender shoulders. Miroku's groping hand twitched in a familiar way and he had to remind it that he was a married man now. Had been for four years.

Still, the young woman had a lovely profile—he noticed as he stepped down a few more steps—high cheekbones and (with the exception of Sango of course) the perkiest, most well formed set of…

He froze mid-step. It couldn't be. It wasn't possible, still he had a photographic memory and there was no way he would have ever forgotten the spectacularly impressive… personality of a certain young priestess.

"Kagome?" He asked hesitantly, not believing it even as she turned and looked him full in the face.

"Yes daddy?" Omi said at the same time Kagome said, "Oh! …Miroku?"

* * *

Inuyasha's aura pulsed.

Kikyou was so busy threading her arrows into his braided mane that she fell over when it happened. Very few things elicited any kind of emotional response from the undead priestess, but Inuyasha's demonic energy reviving was definitely on the short list.

He pulsed again and it had a similar effect on Kikyou as being struck by lightening would have. The energy smelled like ozone and left a lingering metallic taste on her tongue. A series of loud cracks drew her eyes to his hands, which had started moving and after a year of immobility had collected air in the joints.

Kikyou thought quickly about all of the things that she had said to him while he was in the coma, all the little cruelties she'd inflicted… like the time she'd stuck leaves in his nose… and the time she had placed one of his hands in cold water and one in hot…

She had to get creative ever since he wasn't conscious to appreciate her telling him how much she hated him. The priestess had developed a wicked streak since she was revived. She tempered it by helping children and the wounded and sick. But Inuyasha was her outlet, all the frustration at being dead and Inuyasha being alive…

Needless to say, she thought it would be best if she weren't around when he woke up.

Using her soul collectors, she glided regally away at record speed.

* * *

"Sango! We have a guest for dinner! Set a place at our table!"

Sango heard Miroku call out as soon as he stepped into the house. He sounded excited, almost as excited as when she told him they were going to have a second baby. That alone was enough to cause her eyebrows to shoot up far enough to completely disappear into her bangs.

It was bad enough that he kept her inside when she was pregnant, but then to actually have her do the cooking? He seemed to forget who the wife was around here.

She smiled to herself and absently rubbed her free hand over her watermelon sized middle. Maybe she didn't mind so much doing the feminine chores every now and then, but she'd be damned if she told him that. It was however, unusual for him to remind her to set a place at their table, she always did for a guest for the first meal they shared.

"Ede my darling, take this bowl to the table and put it across from mine please?" Sango handed a smooth wooden bowl to an exact replica of Omi, although with more deep wisdom in her eyes than the fighting spirit of her twin. Together they made a formidable pair. Sango fervently prayed that they would follow their father's calling rather than hers. She knew they would be almost unbeatable when trained properly (and she would train them harder than any of her other students), but she couldn't bear the thought of either one of them in danger.

The fact that they were born into danger by being her daughters did not escape her.

The energy of the house shifted as the group neared, the person with them had a huge spiritual aura. Bigger than any she'd ever felt on a human. She quickly checked the long knife strapped to her forearm for easy access. When she heard them approach the kitchen door she turned with a perfect hostess smile on her face and the grilled vegetables on a bamboo serving platter in her hands.

"Welcome to our-" she cut off abruptly as the plate began sliding out of her numb fingers. "K-Kagome?"

Miroku reacted with the reflexes honed from years of battling demons and caught the vegetables in their descent. He had been prepared for her to drop whatever she was holding.

"Yes mommy?" Omi responded, her little face screwed up in a look of frustration, why was everyone using her full name? Was she in trouble?

Sango rushed forward as quickly as she could, which was more of a fast waddle. Kagome met her halfway, hugging her as best as she could around the belly in between them. They were both laughing and crying, something that completely bewildered Omi. Everyone was acting so strangely today.

"You finally came home." Sango said, holding her at arms length to look at her better. "How long are you staying?"

This made Kagome smile almost shyly, she thought of all the arguments and promises she had had with herself, being sure that she was convinced that the best thing for everyone involved was for her to leave as soon as she revived Inuyasha. But looking into the soft brown eyes of the person who had been her closest friend and confidant for years she couldn't stop herself from saying, "For as long as you can stand me."

Sango actually burst into happy tears at this, Kagome only moments behind her. Miroku smiled gently at the two of them. It was like their home had had a missing wall until this moment and it finally was filled.

* * *

He didn't dream, it was dark, peaceful, quiet, no thoughts about anything, no battles, no life without Kagome. Something started pulling him through the layers of unconsciousness as a face took form in his mind. Someone with large eyes and the most genuine smile a person could have. Someone with coal-black hair and a smell like rich sun-baked earth and of fresh lemons. The only smell that could have brought him back.

Kagome.

As if thinking about her summoned a ghost memory, he caught her scent again. No… Kikyou's. He thought miserably, and was surprised at how much the idea of seeing Kikyou again did not appeal to him. Kikyou was just a small part of Kagome's soul with none of her vibrancy or love. Kikyou was not enough to make him face the centuries ahead.

He started to shut down again, chalking it up to his imagination and memories. He could always almost smell her when he drifted just barely above the surface of the dark and thought of her, that was why he avoided consciousness at all costs, it was like giving a freezing man a picture of a fire. The familiar dull ache that felt oddly similar to the hollow collapsed feeling of a completely empty stomach settled in his chest. He would have happily given up his life for her, and almost had on many occasions, but she left him forever. It was past time to move on, but something just wouldn't let him. Maybe he was doomed to only love one woman's soul for his whole existence. How emo.

The dull pain wouldn't go away, in fact, he felt strength flowing to all of his limbs and cracked the joints in his fingers by flexing them. This wasn't supposed to happen, he didn't want to live and had resolved to hibernate until five hundred years had passed and Kagome was born. Then he would wait for her to grow up, then he would kick her skinny butt for leaving in the first place.

The scent of home trailed through the air again and he felt his ears and nose twitch. Very slowly he cracked open his eyes. His vision was blurry, he didn't have the adrenaline rush he had when he woke from his first hibernation. More pops and cracks told him that he was able to move his feet and neck.

If Kagome wasn't back and this was just his delusional mind messing with him there could be very serious trouble for anyone in a fifty mile radius.

Just as his eyes started focusing properly again a piece of cloth fell out of the sacred tree, fluttered in the wind and landed square on his face, completely engulfing and overwhelming him with Kagome's scent.

The rest of his joints adjusted with a crack as Inuyasha leapt to his feet and took off, following the scent home.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Kagome sat at the table, eating some of the most delicious food she had ever tasted. It tasted like home.

The twins sat on either side of her, staring into her face unabashedly. They had heard stories of their parents fighting alongside their Oji and this young woman all their lives, one of them was actually named for her, but they never thought that they would meet her. Even if she did smell a little funny.

Kagome had walked around, running into each twin alternately during the grand tour of the dojo without realizing that there were two of them. She'd finally asked Miroku why Omi kept changing her clothes and he'd laughed until his sides hurt. He was so euphoric by the turn of events that anything remotely funny was making him laugh.

The school was a blend of demon-slaying and spiritual cleansing. It was a new approach that would hopefully keep items and places from becoming cursed after a violent battle. They also didn't only focus on training those who wanted to be demon-slayers full time, they traveled to villages and taught basic defenses and simplified combat classes. The goal being to empower people so they felt less helpless during demon attacks.

The trips to outside villages had stopped when Sango got pregnant the first time with the twins. But the news of the school had spread so they saw students from all over Japan. They said there were currently seven full time students training in the dojo, but they all boarded in the village to provide some income for the villagers.

"Oba?" Omi asked, she was named for Kagome, a fact that made her feel a glow of pride.

"Yes darling?"

"Are you and Ojisan going to get married?"

Kagome looked a question at Miroku and Sango, both of whom had found everything in the room that wasn't her fascinating.

"Who is your uncle?" She asked with a sinking feeling.

"Inuyasha." Ede who was named for Kaede answered.

There it was, the name she was so hesitant to say, the person no one had mentioned, the one person in the world that would make her cross five hundred years of distance as long as she could see him. Something in her chest constricted and became light all at once.

"So he's… still alive." All the years of wondering, worrying, dealing with the what if's and now she knew.

Sango looked surprised. "Of course, what can you imagine would be strong enough to kill that stubborn man?"

Kagome laughed at this, using the motion to hide the tears that had gathered in her eyes.

"Ojisan is gone." Omi said solemnly. "Gone from the well."

Kagome looked up again in alarm while Miroku and Sango shifted uncomfortably. "Inuyasha went through the well?"

"No. Not since he went to sleep…" Miroku trailed off, looking at Sango helplessly.

"He was usually there when he wasn't here." She finished for him.

"For five YEARS?" Kagome gasped, feeling half a decade of guilt crash into her like a tsunami.

Sango became very interested in her rice and Miroku glared at her when she didn't elaborate. "You know how demons work Kagome. Time is different for them, and he only did it for four years… last year he went into hibernation."

"My god." She whispered, hand going to her mouth. She knew how he felt, while she finished junior high and high school she had gone to the well every day, it became a ritual for her. She'd even studied for some of her exams next to the well with a flashlight. But during college she had just stopped. The heartache was too much for her. But Inuyasha was made of tougher stuff. Or so she thought.

There was a long awkward silence.

Kagome stood abruptly and started pacing. "Why did he go into a coma in the first place?"

Miroku and Sango looked at each other in surprise. "You didn't tell her in the letter?"

"Of course I did!" Miroku said indignantly, "it would have defeated the purpose of her coming back at all if she didn't know… you DO know right?" This was said to Kagome who looked more confused.

She pulled the scroll out of her belt and handed it to him, both he and Sango read over it silently.

"So… you thought… you didn't know?"

"I know he took a mate." The words felt like ash in Kagome's mouth. "And I know that he went into hibernation—for reasons unknown—and I know that you needed me back here to snap him out of it."

Tears gathered in Sango's eyes. "You came… even though you thought he had taken someone else as his partner. You love him that much."

Kagome blushed scarlet and looked away, not answering. A light went on in her head suddenly and she snapped her head back to face them. "Wait! What do you mean I _thought?_"

* * *

The smell of smoke made Inuyasha skid to a halt once he was in the village. One of the houses was on fire and the villagers were trying to get to the two children caught inside.

The screamed for help, their little arms waving through the gaps in the burning wood.

Inuyasha looked at them, then at the direction the scent was leading him—straight to the dojo—then back at the kids, then at the dojo again. The demon in him was screaming to go to Kagome, every primal instinct pushing him forward. But the human could not leave the children in danger.

He let out deep, feral snarl that made all of the villagers turn towards him in terror.

"What are the odds?" He growled and ran into the burning building.

* * *

Sango was stumped, she had deflected the mate issue because she thought Inuyasha should be the one to tell her but since it was the whole reason Kagome was there, it was tricky to navigate.

"I want to see him. Now." Kagome stood again and put her hands on the table, looking down at the pair of them determinedly.

Miroku looked at Sango, he was uncomfortable with the idea of them leaving the school grounds after dark, when the demons had been most actively attacking.

"You smell." Omi said.

There was a pregnant pause as everyone turned to look at her.

The little girl looked back defiantly. "What?"

"Would you like a bath before we go?" Miroku offered.

Kagome considered, she wanted to see Inuyasha as soon as possible, but seeing him smelling like demon guts was not how she pictured their reunion. With a nose as sensitive as his he probably wouldn't be able to get near her.

"Fine. But as soon as I finish we are going." She straightened and glared down at Miroku and Sango, challenging them to argue.

"I'll run your bath for you!" Miroku volunteered merrily, jumping halfway up before choking and falling back. Sango had a death-grip on the collar of his robes and kept him pinned.

"Oh no you don't."

Miroku struggled out of her grip and held his hands up. "My intentions are pure! I only do it as a generous host and… WHY are you GLARING at me? I married YOU didn't I?"

Sango kept up the evil eye until a grin spread across her face. "I'm sorry love, old habits die hard." She kissed his forehead and shooed him off. "Go run the bath but come straight back inside when you are done."

Kagome watched the exchange in fascination. So much had changed it left her feeling a little off-balance. In a way it was good though, she wasn't in high school anymore either so they must have matured too.

"Come on Kagome, let me show you to the spare room so you can put down your things." Sango heaved herself up. "But make sure to stay covered until you're outside in the bathing area, I don't trust Miroku to pass up a good peeping chance."

This made Kagome grin, maybe not as much had changed as she thought.

* * *

"Inuyasha!" The little girl that he had rescued clung to Inuyasha's neck like a leech as he tried to pry her off.

"Does anyone have a crow bar?" He growled, pushing her arms up over his head with a huge amount of effort considering he had superhuman strength and she was four.

"You have revived!" A teenage girl looked up at him with adoring eyes. "And you... have arrows in your hair."

"What? What the hell!" Inuyasha yelled when he realized his hair was full of child-made braids and for some reason, arrows. He tugged out the braids with his claws and pulled out as many of the arrows as he could find, which was a surprising amount.

All of the villagers were staring at him, some stunned that he had revived at all, some highly amused by the sight of the irate half-demon with hair sticking up in all directions, and some even more intimidated by the wildness that his new hairdo gave him. In the light of the dying fire he looked more like a demon than ever.

"… Awkward. I have to go. Don't burn down anymore buildings with children in them before I get back." That said he ran off again towards the dojo.

* * *

Kagome stripped off her clothes and scrubbed herself down with the soap sand, rubbing her skin raw to make sure the smell was gone. She took a deep breath and poured a bucket of icy water over herself, shivering violently in the growing cold of the night and stepped into the bath, sighing as the heat wrapped her in a warm blanket. It was heaven. She had even brought the biggest bottle of shampoo she could get her hands on to the feudal era with her.

Shampoo! Crap, she thought, remembering that it was still with her clothes by the back door and out of reach.

She wrestled with the idea of getting out of the amazing warmth and not having her hair washed when she first saw Inuyasha in five years. Vanity won but she couldn't quite pluck up the motivation to move just yet.

* * *

Without breaking stride Inuyasha raised the kerchief to his nose again, reminding himself that it was real, that her scent was undeniably on it, and that it was fresh. The only way for that to happen was if she was here. In his time. Alive, well, wanting to come back of her own free will.

The beads of subjugation moved slightly with his stride. They had no power after Kagome left but he couldn't bring himself to take them off.

They reminded him of Kagome, plain and simple. Granted they weren't all good memories, most of them ending with his face in the ground. Still, he was afraid that if he removed them it meant that Kagome was really gone forever.

Soon he wouldn't need them, he'd have her in his arms again, and boy was she going to get it. Five years of wondering if she was dead. Who had protected her in her time? That scrawny kid who was always given her stuff? Hojou? Yeah right. Typical Kagome, stupid and overconfident, how she ever thought she could make it without him around was beyond him.

A small voice in the back of his head whispered traitorously _you mean how did you ever think you could live without her?_

Inuyasha took the stairs in two bounds, setting a personal record and avoiding the subtle wires that attached to bells at the house. A crude but effective alarm system.

The door was open as Omi struggled to lift a lantern onto a hook way too high for her. Out of habit Inuyasha hooked it in one smooth motion and dropped his fire rat coat onto the little girl. She always wore it around when the dojo had been his home.

"Ojisan?" came her muffled voice as she moved under the haori.

"Where is she?" He asked angrily and turning his head to sniff the air. Getting his bearings he strode down the hall, wrenching open the back door.

* * *

Kagome sighed and resigned herself to getting her shampoo. She thought she heard someone in the front hall as she stepped out of the high wooden tub and held a towel loosely in front of her, getting ready to wrap it around her torso.

Suddenly the door in front of her was opened violently and he stood there, breathing heavily, fire in his golden eyes and an overall fierce expression. He made an even more impressive figure than last time she had seen him, he was taller than she remembered. The white tunic he wore under his beads was more fitted to his body. This was not the slender boy she had left all those years ago, this was a full-grown male… who looked ready to wring her neck.

Inuyasha was so wrapped up in his fury, frustration and exhilaration that it took him a moment to realize that it was Kagome standing in front of him. She didn't look as different as he thought she would. Her hair was in a knot and her face had lost some of its youth, leaving her with high cheekbones and a full mouth, but she was the same, his Kagome.

Without another thought, without changing his furious expression, he grabbed her shoulders and pulled him roughly to him, capturing her in his arms. He was overwhelmed by her scent, by her feel, by her everything. He felt something monumental inside him shift as he held her to him again and as she buried her face in his chest. The world could have imploded and he would have never known or cared.

Kagome relaxed into him completely, breathing in deeply and dragging her fingertips through his hair and up to his ears. Inuyasha's fingers freed her hair from its knot and he held fistfuls of it to his face, just breathing. Her fingers had found his ears and were rubbing them in slow circles as he held her tightly to him.

He slid his hands through her hair and down her back, pressing her more desperately against his body. After a moment of holding onto each other for dear life they both realized something important.

Kagome was naked, the towel dropped long before, and Inuyasha's arms were around her, one hand perilously close to her breast, the other caressing her hip.

A blushing Inuyasha slowly let her go with his gaze averted, sliding her fingers away from his ears and out of his hair. He turned on his heel, and walked back into the house, shutting the door behind him. In the hallway he found Omi wrapped up in his red outer shirt sitting on the front step outside the house. He ran his hands through his hair a few times, absentmindedly tracing the paths Kagome's fingers had followed and sat down next to her.

"Ojisan?" She asked, tugging the front of his white tunic gently. "Why are you wet?"

* * *

Author's note:

Thanks so much for the support! I'm still not 100% sure about which direction to take this story, any ideas are welcome and appreciated, even small stuff like "I would like Inuyasha to give Miroku an atomic wedgie... or vice versa."

Next chapter coming soon!

-Azure


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It took Kagome a few moments to remember she was standing outside, naked. Her whole body trembled as she climbed back into the bathtub, shampoo forgotten, and pulled her knees to her chest.

Inuyasha was all she thought about when her attention wandered while they had been apart, and what she dreamed about at night. The way he affected her hadn't changed at all, if anything it had gotten worse. She thought it was safe to say he felt the same way from the way he embraced her, but she still needed time with him to sort out everything. She was beginning to suspect who the so-called-mate in the weathered letter Miroku wrote was.

The bathwater was lukewarm by the time she got out and she dried off quickly before slipping into her pajamas. They were flannel with little white dogs on them and loose enough to hide the slender sheath she restrapped to her calf.

She crept back into the house barefoot and a low murmur caught her attention down a hallway. Feeling the creeping curiosity that got her into trouble nine times out of ten she followed the voice. At an open doorway to a dimly lit room she recognized the voice and froze.

Inuyasha. Nothing but time would get her used to hearing his voice again. Tears gathered in her eyes at the simplicity of just knowing he was there and she pressed her back to the wall by the doorway, listening.

"I went to sleep because I was really tired." Kagome pictured him gesturing vaguely as he tried to explain something he clearly didn't want to. "But now I'm awake and I am never ever going away like that again." The girls didn't catch the slight menace in his tone that was clearly directed at her, he knew she was there.

"Ojisan?" Omi asked, yawning hugely halfway through the word so it was almost unintelligible. "Are you an Obasan gonna get married?"

"Who's… Oh. Crap."

"Oji!" Ede gasped.

"Well you two look tired, no time like the present, get to sleeping." Inuyasha said hurriedly, backing out of the room.

"Good night Ojisan." They said in unison as he slid their door shut and looked at her.

Kagome froze as her eyes locked with Inuyasha's. The molten gold that she had always tried to picture more vibrant than her memory could have ever done justice. She felt like her backbone was made of silly putty as he put both of his hands on either side of her head and leaned into her.

"You idiot." He growled. "Do not ever. Ever. Do that again." He pushed away from her and stormed out to meet Miroku and Sango, both of whom looked unsurprised to see him up and about.

"We figured you would show up." Miroku handed Sango some coins.

"You were _betting_ on it?" Inuyasha asked incredulously.

"I thought you would be here sooner." The monk said simply, shrugging. "You have ash on your face."

"I got held up." Inuyasha glared down at his friend and stormed outside.

"He hasn't changed." Miroku commented and pulled a bottle off of the shelf. "Let's toast to your return and Inuyasha's revival!"

"I'm celebrating with water." Sango sighed and patted her belly.

They all followed Inuyasha to the side porch, furthest away from the girls' bedrooms. "Sake Inu-?"

The ill-tempered half-demon snatched the bottle from Miroku and downed half of it before he could finish offering it to him. Miroku just sighed resignedly and went back inside for a second bottle while Kagome poured herself a cup and settled uneasily next to Inuyasha, careful not to touch him for fear of never being able to stop.

"So…" Sango started into a silence so thick you could cut it with a spoon. "What have you been doing in your time Kagome?"

Inuyasha looked at the girl out of the corner of his eye, waiting for her to answer.

"I've been going to school…"

Inuyasha snorted contemptuously. "I hate school." He muttered under his breath.

"Yeah well I'm done now, no more school ever. I finished high school and college. I'm done."

"Weren't you in this highest school when we last saw you?" Sango asked, encouraging the conversation as best she could.

"I had two years left, then I went to college… which is the last level of school that mom wanted me to do before…" She trailed off but was saved as Miroku made his reappearance with the second bottle.

Kagome hurriedly finished her cup and refilled it as Inuyasha finished the first bottle.

"Hmm. I can see things have progressed nicely." Miroku commented with a raised eyebrow.

They continued to talk about mundane things, about the school and the twins, avoiding the topics that everyone was actually interested in.

Kagome wanted to know what had made Inuyasha do something as drastic as go dormant, and what had happened during the four years before that. Most importantly she wanted to know how Inuyasha felt about her, and about Kikyou and if the relationship she had obsessed over for the past five years even existed. The embrace pointed to "yes", but the current rigid posture of the half-demon at her side said "maybe".

Inuyasha wanted to know the same things about Kagome, why she came back now, why she didn't come back before, if any other man had touched her in the time they were apart and if the well worked for him too now so he could go kill any man who had.

Sango wanted to know why Inuyasha's shirt was wet and why Kagome kept blushing whenever she made eye-contact with him.

Miroku was trying to determine the exact probability that he was going to get laid.

* * *

"Please make yourself at home." Sango led a tipsy Kagome back to a room on the far side of the house from her own bedroom. "There are pads there, by the window, and water in that pitcher. Just call if you need anything."

"Thanks, you're the best, I've missed you so much." Kagome gave her a hug and stumbled over to prepare her bed.

Inuyasha stood in the hallway just a few feet back from them, his own cheeks were quite rosy. His metabolism would work off the alcohol in half the time it took a human, but at the moment he was still feeling the effects of the sake, and he had had a LOT of sake.

Miroku however was blitzed. He had taken a drink with both Inuyasha and Kagome, whenever they drank, though it wasn't always at the same time. He had his arm around Inuyasha's shoulders. "You're sho dead fer teachin Omi to call it my bingle stick cause, cause that's what Sango calls my-"

"Miroku!" Sango cut him off sharply and pushed him towards the hall that led to their bedroom. "Go get the bed ready would you sweety?"

"Anything fer you pretty lady." Miroku said amiably and started wobbling off to bed.

"Sango." Inuyasha said in an undertone once Miroku was out of earshot. "That's MY bedroom you put Kagome in."

"Oh, do you mind sharing Inuyasha? I forgot to ask you, I just thought you two may want some time to catch up in private. Goodnight." She grasped his shoulder with a genuine smile of encouragement before leaving to get Miroku out of the closet he'd walked into and into bed.

Inuyasha blinked for a moment at the face of this infallible logic, took a deep breath and stepped into his room, where Kagome looked at home.

"Hi." He said.

She jumped a little at that, then gave him an embarrassed smile. "Hey. Did you need something?"

"Actually, you're sharing my bed with me." He frowned, not sure if that was what he meant to say as Kagome's eyes threatened to pop out of her head. "I mean… this is my bedroom, but I can find somewhere else if…"

It took Kagome a moment to grasp his meaning. "Oh! No! Sorry, if anyone should leave it's me."

"Yeah well I think you've done enough of that already." The alcohol made the words slip out before Inuyasha could stop them. Once they were out it felt good to have said them, like he wasn't hiding how he felt anymore.

"That's not fair." She mumbled, staring at him. "The well didn't work until today."

"Were you trying every day? Did you care if it stopped working forever? Why'd you come back Kagome?" The last question was the only one that mattered to him and it showed as he wouldn't meet her eyes when he asked it.

"I… I…"

"God you can be so dense." Inuyasha started pacing a wobbly line and glaring at her. "Why'd you leave for so long in the first place?"

She bristled at that. "It wasn't like I WANTED to be gone! The well just didn't work anymore!"

"Why not?" He shot back, crossing his arms across his chest.

The gesture was so defiant and infuriating and familiar that her heart ached. She flushed as she remembered why the well stopped working. Because she couldn't decide where she wanted to be. With Naraku defeated and the jewel reclaimed the sense of obligation she had was gone and the only thing keeping the well working was her conflicted heart. With a stronger sense of obligation pulling her to her time the well stopped taking her back. Now school was done it was the time to choose what to do with her life and there had been only one thing that she wanted.

Like collecting the shards of the jewel, finishing school had tied her to her time. Now there was nothing tying her there besides her family, but even they didn't own her heart.

"Why Kagome?" He asked again, uncrossing his arms, his hands slack at his sides. The defeat in his posture was more than she could bear.

"Because… Because… It's not like you ever came to get me!" She said defiantly, putting her hands on her hips and leaning angrily towards him.

"It didn't work for me anymore either! It was the jewel wasn't it?" His hands balled into fists again and she felt marginally better, at least he didn't look like a beaten puppy anymore.

She looked down before speaking. "No… it wasn't the jewel… the well doesn't do what I want, it does what I need." She waited for him to understand, faced flushed.

He sighed and rubbed his face, not looking at her with what he said next. "So it wasn't because I'm half dog."

She was so shocked that she moved forward to him. "But, Inuyasha, I meant what I said the night I left. That stuff never changed. I have never seen you as half of anything! I just had to finish some things." She paused and looked out the window. "And so did you." She said it so quietly that he had to strain to hear.

"So when you didn't need to get the jewel back together here the well wouldn't take you anymore." He stated, showing a level of comprehension that stunned her. He HAD grown up while she was away. "But why are you here now?" He looked tired, bone weary. "You didn't need… us enough for it to work for you. Did you forget something? Or are you just here to break… _Shippou's _heart again"

She looked at the floor and mumbled her response so quietly even he couldn't hear her.

"What?"

"I left something I couldn't live without anymo-" she started determinedly but was interrupted by a crash from the forest.

Both of them reacted instinctively, he ran into the hall and she quickly grabbed her bow and ran after him.

They met Miroku at the door where he was naked from the waist up and arguing heatedly with Sango. She was trying in vain to get past him with a short sword in her hands and he was pushing her back towards the girls' room.

Not waiting, Inuyasha and Kagome skidded to a halt in the yard. He scented out the demon while she strung her bow in a smooth, practiced motion. The movement drew Inuyasha's eye to her and his jaw dropped open.

"What the heck do you think you're doing? Get back inside!" He yelled at her as a monstrous snake demon rose above the trees.

Completely ignoring him she reached over and jerked an arrow that was just sticking out under his hair.

"What the? Ow!"

She notched it to her bow, leveling it for only the briefest moment before letting the arrow fly. Her hands were steady even as her mind was still foggy from the alcohol. She knelt and unsheathed her knife from where it stayed strapped on her calf and started forward without waiting to see if the arrow hit. It caught the serpent's tail, missing its center because of her tipsy state but destroying the bottom half of its body all the same.

As she ran forward Inuyasha—not to be outdone—shredded it to bits with one swipe of his claws.

Miroku burst outside of the house, sacred sutras in one hand and holding his robe onto his waist with the other. He looked around bewildered at the pieces of demon still falling in the yard. "Where'd it go?"

"Kagome." Inuyasha said in explanation at the same moment she said. "Inuyasha."

"Ah." Miroku said, shrugged and staggered back into the house. "S'no big deal. Tha dream team made it go 'way!"

"I TOLD you it was a weak demon! I could have handled it!" Came Sango's muffled response.

There was silence in the yard as both Inuyasha and Kagome stared at the carnage before simultaneously rounding on each other.

"What the hell were you thinking!" He yelled at her while she yelled, "Don't try to keep me inside like some fragile little doll!"

They both paused, glaring. Then he shot back, "You're wearing night clothes! No one goes to battle in night clothes! AND you were going to attack it with a freaking butter knife!"

"Oh yeah? Well you didn't have a problem when I was fighting in a MINISKIRT!" she poked her finger in his chest. "AND my knife is just as effective as your claws buster!"

He stood rigid, hands clenching and unclenching before grabbing her shoulders.

Since the last time he grabbed her he had attacked her and she had had to fend him off with a hug she softened slightly in anticipation of another violent embrace. Instead he shook her.

"Why don't you ever listen to me?" He growled, eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're so stubborn and, and stupid!"

She did the only thing that seemed right and raised up on her toes, gently touching her forehead to his. "I missed you too."


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry for disappearing! I'm still figuring out the website -_- As usual I own nothing. Sigh.

Chapter 5

Once back inside they began setting up beds again. Inuyasha stubbornly putting his in between the door and the window so he was in the line of fire for both. Kagome equally stubbornly put hers next to his at a ninety degree angle so that their heads were beside each other with their bodies facing away.

"I'm just as capable as guarding a door as you are Inuyasha." She snapped when he growled at her.

Things were almost back to normal. Despite being frustrated by Inuyasha's arrogance and pigheadedness, Kagome felt like whistling. Even with the tension in the room she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, aided in no small part by the residual effects of the alcohol. A peaceful expression smoothed across her face as she slipped into unconsciousness.

Inuyasha stayed up longer. Not tossing and turning but just laying on his side. Once her breathing evened he reached out and pushed his claws into Kagome's jet black hair. It was as soft as he remembered, almost like kitten fur and still smelled like warm, rich earth. He brushed the back of his fingers down her cheek and breathed deeply through his nose. Her skin smelled faintly like lemongrass, good enough to eat.

For once both his human and his demon halves were in perfect harmony, this was his woman, and she was never leaving him again.

"Mine." He murmured and kissed her forehead before crossing his legs on top of his bedding and settling in to keep watch.

* * *

Kagome woke to an empty room. She put her hand on Inuyasha's bedding, which was still made up from the night before, and it was cold. She started panicking involuntarily. All of this effort coming back to the feudal era and he was gone.

"Hey, what's that face for?" The male in question asked from the doorway.

She heaved a huge sigh of relief before she could stop herself and he cocked an eyebrow at her. "I didn't know… where you went." She finished truthfully, blushing.

His expression softened. "I just woke up after a year; I've been eating since you went to sleep last night."

She couldn't help but smile at that. "Some things never…" her expression froze as she remembered what Inuyasha's favorite thing to eat was. She scrambled out of her bedding and over to her bag, which had been emptied of all ramen packages. "You didn't…" She looked up to see the end of his hair swish out of sight. "SIT!"

There was a crash in the hallway followed by a string of obscenities.

Kagome jumped out of her bedding before he could recover and stepped out into the hall. She had to walk over him to get to the kitchen and he caught her ankle as she passed.

"Why. Do. These. Work. Again." He ground out, pushing himself to a sitting position with a huge effort.

"They only work for me." She replied smugly and shook him off.

He growled incoherently, pushing all the way to his feet and following her to the kitchen.

No one at the table commented about the crash but the twins were casting long looks in Inuyasha's direction.

"Ojisan?" Omi asked hesitantly.

"What?" He replied gruffly.

"Sit."

Nothing happened and Omi looked perplexed while every other adult in the room tried to smother giggles. Inuyasha glared at all of them and took his bowl of ramen outside to eat.

"Why no sit?" Omi asked, looking at them, then out at Inuyasha who was seated on the edge of the porch within hearing range, his back to them. She pointed a little finger and said more loudly. "SIT."

One of Inuyasha's ears twitched and Kagome burst into a fit of giggles.

"Omi darling, you have to go like this…" She began, turning towards him.

Inuyasha leapt to his feet and turned with an infuriated expression. "DON'T YOU DAR-"

"Sit."

He crashed to the porch.

"Ah the dulcet sounds of Inuyasha face-planting. How I have missed them." Miroku smiled, a beatific expression of someone at complete peace covering his face.

Sango's expression suddenly froze and she slapped the monk. "Let's not get too caught up in reliving fond memories dear."

Oddly enough he looked even more pleased as a red handprint appeared on his cheek. "As flawless as ever my dear Sango."

"Good aim mommy." Ede said with a toothy grin.

"Oh man." Came Inuyasha's voice, somewhat muffled by his face being in direct contact with the ground.

"Hey Kagome," Sango waited for Kagome's attention before continuing. "Miroku said that you and Inuyasha took out that demon last night in no time. Have you been practicing?"

Kagome smiled at her friend and winked. "Are you kidding? I went to high school, there's more demons there than you can shake a stick at!"

Sango gasped. "You went to a school full of demons? That sounds really dangerous!"

"I think Kagome was joking dear." Miroku supplied helpfully.

"Oh."

Inuyasha had scooted back to the doorway, one ear crooked back slightly to hear the conversation better.

"There are a lot more demons in my time than I thought. I just had to learn how to protect myself."

Inuyasha stood at that and walked away down the length of the porch.

"Kagome, Why don't you and Inuyasha go out to gather herbs today? We're a little low on licorice root and with cold season coming…" Sango trailed off hopefully. "I'd go myself but I'm not as mobile as I could be."

"Sure! You ARE giving me a place to stay, it's the least I can do." Kagome got up and stretched, gathering her breakfast dishes and walking them to the kitchen. She felt an aura pressing against her back and felt it out. It was golden-feeling, like a summer day, and extremely powerful. "Are you coming with me Inuyasha?" She asked.

He didn't question how she knew it was him, it just made sense that she would. The claws that had been inching towards her hair dropped to his side. Until they had a serious talk he knew he shouldn't be touching her. But after so long without being around her it was almost impossible to resist. He caved into his instincts and rested his cheek on the top of her head.

Her whole body froze and he drew back immediately, his arrogant mask sliding into place like a familiar jacket.

"Don't…" She sighed but he was already gone.

* * *

Inuyasha and Kagome walked through the forest along a well-worn trail, him a step ahead and refusing to look at her.

"Inuyasha talk to me." She sighed. "We're going to have to at some point. Sobriety will also help."

"No."

Kagome grabbed a handful of his soft silver hair and jerked him to a stop by it. "Yes."

"… Fine." He dropped on top of a boulder and crossed his arms. "What do you want to know?"

"Well… everything. What happened when I left for starters, then if you ever resolved your feelings and what we do now." She sat next to him, not releasing his hair from her grasp.

"Whatever. You left, it sucked, it was boring and you're never doing it again." Inuyasha shrugged. "It's not like I care or nothin' but I don't trust you to protect yourself… AND you had to deal with demons anyway so you're not any safer in your time, might as well be here."

Kagome began running her fingers through his hair, working out tangles. She leaned forward and breathed in his scent. He smelled like cedar and a fireplace on a cold night. He smelled like warmth and comfort and strength.

She buried her face in the hair covering his neck. "Hmm? I wasn't listening."

"I said that… that…" He swallowed hard as she massaged his scalp and worked up to his ears. "Don't…"

Her hands paused as they reached his ears. "Are they too sensitive to be touched?"

"Uh no, I mean yes, they're sensitive, but… uh… it feels _really_ good." He blushed scarlet and stared down at his crossed arms.

She blushed too but didn't remove her hands. Very carefully she scratched the base of his ears.

"K-Kagome!" He gasped and tried to move away.

She laughed nervously. "That's so interesting that your ears do… that. For you."

Once free of her grasp he turned and caught her wrists in one hand, pulling them over her head and putting his other hand at the small of her back so she was effectively captured. With a heated look he leaned into her and breathed lightly on her neck before nuzzling the base of her ear.

The action made a shiver run straight up Kagome's spine and her breath to speed up. When he moved the hand at her back to gently caress the curve of her ear her whole body tightened in response.

"Yeah. Interesting." He let her go with a smug look.

"I stand corrected, I... see what you mean." She smiled sheepishly and tried to ignore the furious speed of her heartbeat. "So… What's this whole thing about mates that Miroku told me about?"

Inuyasha fell off the boulder.

"H-He told you?" His face was so red that she thought there wouldn't be enough blood in the rest of his body to move.

"He didn't tell me anything besides that you took a mate and something happened and then you went into hibernation for god only knows why. How could you be so stupid Inuyasha?" She didn't mention that she was almost positive that Inuyasha had somehow claimed _her_ as a mate and her absence was what made him go dormant, she wanted to hear him say it.

Inuyasha looked away at the question. "It's not that simple! Demons don't really work like humans. Even half-demons, we have mates or partners, depending on how you want to look at it. You remember how that wolf idiot kept calling you "his woman"?"

Kagome nodded, afraid that if she talked then he would stop.

"He was trying to lay claim to you because you have a… compatible energy." Inuyasha ran his thumb up and down the hilt of his Tetsusaiga nervously. "Not all humans can be a demon's partner."

"And Kikyou could have been?" Kagome asked curiously.

This caused Inuyasha to pause and look at her sideways. "… No. She couldn't. That's why she wanted me to use the jewel."

Kagome was surprised, something that she had inherently that Kikyou didn't? Maybe there were parts of her that were purely Kagome, not just Kikyou's reincarnation. "So what happened? Did you find someone else with 'compatible energy' or something?"

"… No. There was never anyone else."

She chickened out, she couldn't make him talk about his feelings when she wasn't sure she could do it herself, it wasn't fair. "So what were you up to before you took your 'nap'? With Naraku gone there can't have been much to do."

The subject change was fast enough to give Inuyasha whiplash and he raised an eyebrow at her. "I was travelling with Sango and Miroku. We visited Shiori and she was old enough to travel with us for awhile so we looked for other half-demons living with humans to try to help them tap into their powers."

Kagome felt an unexpected pang of jealousy when she remembered the beautiful half-demon girl with lavender eyes and bronze skin. The thought of her traveling with Inuyasha, or doing anything with him at all, was not one that made her happy.

Inuyasha caught her frown and walked up to the boulder again. "What's up Kagome? You look kinda like you just swallowed a lemon."

"Oh it's nothing! I was just thinking about how unfair it is that half-demons are treated so badly!" She supplemented, it wasn't entirely untrue, it did make her mad to see anyone abused, but it wasn't the whole truth either.

Inuyasha turned away again. "Yeah. Some of the homes were… really bad. But I think we helped a little, and a lot of the kids we met have come to the school to visit or study permanently." He looked up at the sky with his hand on Tetsusaiga's hilt.

She recognized the expression from their traveling days as his way of saying that he wanted her to think that he didn't care but secretly had strong feelings about the subject. She slid off the rock and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Inuyasha. I'm really proud of you." She smiled to herself as a faint blush colored his cheeks and couldn't resist adding, "Good boy!" and patting his head.

"I am not your dog!" He exclaimed, ducking out from under her hand and walking ahead on the path.

Kagome grabbed the basket she brought for herbs and followed, grinning like a fool.

"Is this a good spot?" Inuyasha asked, stopping in a little meadow and looking around.

"This is just fine!" Kagome began pacing the clearing, cutting plants as she saw them with the small paring knife Sango had lent her. "Perfect! Ginger! That will make Sango happy, nothing like licorice root and fresh ginger for a cold." She knelt and dug into the soft earth with her blade, getting it under the root and carefully prying it to the surface intact.

She stood again and brushed dirt off of her knees, then pushed her hair back behind her ear. When she looked up she caught Inuyasha watching her with an odd expression on his face. "What?"

"Nuthin." He replied gruffly and turned away.

"Oh! Inuyasha!" Kagome gasped.

"What? What is it?" He spun around and closed the distance between them with one leap, putting himself protectively in front of her.

Kagome laughed and pushed at his unyielding back. "Move you doofus, I wanted you to see the Camphor tree."

He spun around and pinned her with an incredulous expression. "Don't DO that!"

She laughed again and pinched his cheek. "You are so cute when you get all riled up!"

He held her gaze and she stopped laughing, her heart began to race as he brought his hand up to her cheek. "You have managed to get dirt on yourself all ready, you're such a klutz." He brushed her cheek clean before he realized how she was looking at him and dropped his hand with a blush.

"You know." She began once she had her body back under control. "If I make you blush anymore I think your face is just going to stay permanently red."

"I aint blushing!" He denied vehemently. "It just looks like it because YOUR blush is reflecting off me!"

"I'm not blushing! Why would I blush?" She put her fingertips against her cheeks and sure enough, they felt warm.

Suddenly she was aware that Inuyasha was standing close to her again, so close a deep breath would have made her chest touch his. She stopped breathing. When she gathered the courage to look up at his face, he had an expression so heated it should have incinerated her clothes on the spot.

Kagome felt her cheeks flame.

"Hah!" Inuyasha barked triumphantly. "I _told_ you you were blushing!" He turned away and looked across the clearing. "Now what were you saying about a Camphor tree?"

Kagome ground her teeth. "Inuyasha…"

"Yo!" He turned back, still grinning, but the look on her face turned his smile into an expression of panic. "No! Kagome! Wait-"

"SIT."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"I think we dodged that arrow magnificently last night." Miroku commented to Sango as they peeled root vegetables for the dinner. "But I don't think we can manage again."

She nodded with a frown, remembering their conversation with Kagome.

"_Wait! What do you mean I thought?" Kagome demanded, looking intensely down at both Miroku and Sango._

"_It's just… very complicated, I don't think we should really be the ones to explain it." Sango said uneasily, looking to Miroku for support._

"_The important thing is that you revive him, we need him to help teach the half-demons at the school, he's the only one who really knows how. We've taught them everything we can as humans but they need the unique perspective he can offer." He supplied. "He's been dormant for a year now and we are all very worried."_

"_He's been like this for a year?" Kagome looked more than a little shell-shocked._

_Sango was stumped, she had deflected the mate issue because she thought Inuyasha should be the one to tell her but since it was the whole reason Kagome was there, it was tricky to navigate._

"_I want to see him. Now." Kagome stood and put her hands on the table, looking down at the pair of them determinedly._

"I'm worried about them, she seemed really… withdrawn. I think the idea of Inuyasha being with someone else was crippling to her. I always knew that they had strong feelings for each other, but I think I really underestimated HOW strong those feelings were." Miroku put down his knife and wrapped his arms around his wife. "I don't know what I would do if you went somewhere I could never see you again."

Sango placed both hands over his, leaning into him and closing her eyes. There was the faintest clinging sound as he leaned down and placed a kiss on the top of her head; when they had the twins he had considered taking out his earrings but Sango had argued vehemently.

She reached up and played with the rings with her fingertips and a soft smile on her face. "I'm so glad you didn't take these out."

"I never thought you cared much for them." He mumbled in response, kissing his way down her cheek to the curve of her neck.

"I think they are very, very appealing." She turned in his arms and he continued his trail of kisses down over her heart, in between her breasts and kneeled to reach her rounded stomach. "Very… warrior monk."

"Warrior monk?" He looked up at her with his eyes twinkling.

"Would you prefer monk-of-all-trades?" She smiled back and cupped her hands under his short ponytail, rubbing her thumbs in circles on his neck.

"No no no! I love warrior monk." He sighed and placed his cheek against her belly. "I cannot wait until you have this one and can get back to your wifely duties." His hands, which had been behaving on her lower back, smoothly transitioned to her butt. "Ow!"

"What?" Sango asked as he fell back on his butt, rubbing the cheek that had been against her stomach.

"I can't be entirely sure but I think our son just _slapped_ me!"

Sango burst into laughter and went back to peeling her vegetables. Her hands froze mid-motion as she looked out the window and a huge smile spread across her face. "I don't think we need to worry my love, they seem to be getting along just fine."

* * *

Kagome stopped just outside of the kitchen, whirling to face Inuyasha, a look of deepest worry marking her face.

"What is it Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, concern written all over his own face.

"Don't you… like me anymore?" She asked, biting her lip.

"I… what?" He looked completely bewildered. "Of course I like you. I like you a lot." He watched in fascination as she let her lip slide back out of her mouth into a pout. "I-I mean that, it's just, you were-" He was flustered and blushing as she slid her hand over his.

She stood up on her tiptoes and put her mouth near his. "Now who's blushing?" and she ran inside before he could realize what happened.

Inuyasha felt his knees nearly give out as he tried to remember how to breathe and gritted his teeth, resolved to beat her at this new 'game.'

Kagome was still grinning when she went into the kitchen to find Miroku and Sango furiously chopping vegetables as if they hadn't just been spying on her and Inuyasha.

"There's no way you can know it's a boy Miroku!" Sango suddenly burst out a little too loudly, making them both jump.

"Oh I know it is Sango." He replied in kind, tossing his finished veggies into a pot over the fire.

"Uh… hi guys." Kagome waved weakly and put her basket on the counter. "I got the herbs and then some. Licorice as requested, ginger, and some camphor." She pulled each bundle out and laid them out on the counter.

Sango waddled over. "Those look wonderful! Thank you so much." She said with genuine enthusiasm. "Do you want to go ahead and start soaking the camphor wood? Where is Inuyasha? He has a class waiting in the courtyard."

"Yeah yeah." The half-demon in question strode through the kitchen without looking at any of them. "I'm on my way already."

Kagome tracked him out of the corner of her eyes. "What class?" she asked Sango casually.

"I told you that we've taught the half-demons everything we can, except for hand-to-hand combat and tapping into their powers, Inuyasha will take over from this point on."

"Why not combat? You're the best demon-slayer in the country!"

Sango grimaced and put her hand on her stomach. "I'd love to lead a practical class but _someone_ keeps getting me pregnant. I think he does it just to spite me now." She glared at Miroku pointedly who was whistling nonchalantly.

"He… gets you pregnant out of spite." Kagome shook off the mental image to get back to the point at hand. "And Miroku is really just good at fighting with the aid of the bingle stick."

Miroku spat out the mouthful of soup he had been tasting.

"Shakujou." Sango corrected mildly.

"Yes that." Kagome agreed, looking from one to the other. "My point being that they don't have any practical combat training and you're leaving Inuyasha to teach them technique?"

Sango sighed resignedly. "He's really our only option, he's very good at wailing on people so we figured it was better than nothing."

Kagome was already running down the hall after Inuyasha, thankful that she had dressed in jeans. "Inuyasha!"

As she burst into the courtyard she saw him holding a young man in the air by his ankle. "See what I mean...? Hey Kagome, what's up?"

She had to literally bite her tongue to keep from "sit"ting him and it must have shown because he hastily put the boy back on his feet. She took a deep breath and centered, then walked over to his side. "I'm going to teach with you."

"Archery?"

"Combat."

He stared at her for a moment before smiling slowly. "Ookay."

She turned to the class, ignoring him. It was a mix of demons, half-demons and humans. There were only a few full demons, a lynx and a panther, both younger than any of the other students. The half-demons ranged from a water sprite (Kagome silently thanked Buddha for not having her jacket with her), to a bear and one she couldn't quite identify but guessed horse. The humans looked a little uncomfortable, they clearly were not used to being this close to so many benevolent demons.

"Hello everyone, my name is Kagome-" This elicited several gasps from the group. "… and I'm going to help Inuyasha teach you self-defense. As you can see, those with demon blood often rely too heavily on their brute strength." Pointed look. "While strength is important it can only take you so far. If you have both strength and skill none of you should ever feel defenseless."

Her little speech had the humans and half-demons looking excited but the full demons looking haughty.

"Why would we feel defenseless? We don't have anything to be afraid of." The panther demon girl snarked.

Inuyasha leaned in close to her with a fierce expression and flames practically spitting out of his eyes. "You wanna run that by me again little kitty?"

"Ok! Ok! I feel defenseless!" She squeaked and scampered behind the bear.

"Inuyasha…" Kagome growled ominously.

"What? I didn't do nuthin." He rocked back on his heels, looking smug.

She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Ok. Let's start with names."

"I'm Kago." The half-horse demon volunteered quietly. She was unassuming, slender with a long face and completely blue eyes with no iris.

Kagome suddenly placed where she had seen her eyes before and clapped her hands excitedly. "Do you know Jinenji?"

"Jinenji is my father." The girl said hesitantly.

"Eee! Jinenji got married! That's so exciting!" Kagome did a happy wiggle before settling herself back into stoic teacher mode.

The girl looked at her like she was insane but didn't comment further.

"Let's go clockwise around the group." Kagome rolled her eyes when all she got were blank stares. "East around the group."

"I am Jin." The half-water sprite said.

They went on like this, Inuyasha had trained with the lynx at Totosai's workshop, Boonta, the panther was named Kanako, the bear Okun and the two humans were Eri and Toma. Kagome was thrilled at the human girl because of her friend from middle and high school Eri who she knew she would miss as time passed.

"Now that we're all familiar with each other… attack me Inuyasha." Kagome ordered calmly.

* * *

Author's note:

Oh no! What's going to happen? Is Inuyasha going to use his claws on Kagome or is she going to cut him down to size? Find out in our next episode of "All Growed Up"!

... Sorry, couldn't resist. I just wanted to say thanks for the very nice reviews! If anyone is wondering why a review they gave me before is no longer there it is because I am an idiot and couldn't figure out how to work this ridiculous site. It is not because I hate you. Promise.

More to come soon, I have a better idea of what plot (yes I do have one, it's just very well hidden) line I'm going to follow now and with my new heading will sail into these uncharted waters.

Until next time!

Azure.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Ok. Wait, what?" Inuyasha's jaw dropped. "Are you nuts? I spend all my freaking time tryin to _protect _you!"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "You can just push me."

He still looked uncomfortable but stepped quickly at her, hands outstretched. Kagome placed one hand under his upper arm and one on his side, ducking and pulling him forward. He stumbled a step and looked over his shoulder with raised eyebrows.

"See kids? Strength isn't everything."

"Pfft. You just got lucky." Inuyasha stuck his nose in the air and crossed his arms.

"Pair off guys." Kagome divided up the humans and paired them with a half-demon and demon each. She kept Okun separate and had him work with Inuyasha.

First she talked about form, and delighted in correcting Inuyasha's right hook. She was surprised at how quickly they learned and she was teaching blocking when Inuyasha straightened and sniffed the air, casting a sideways glance at Kagome.

"What?" She paused and Jin took the opportunity to try out his newly developed uppercut. Before Inuyasha even finished snarling she had absent-mindedly shifted her weight backwards so he hit empty air and she pushed him on his butt with barely any effort. "Don't invest all of your strength in one hit in case you miss." She pulled him to his feet and walked to Inuyasha.

"You've really improved." Inuyasha said levelly, not looking at her.

"You mean that I learned. I got knocked down so many times in my first self-defense class that there is a Kagome-shaped indention permanently on the practice mat." She grinned ruefully up at him. "So what did you smell?"

"S'not important." He brushed a claw under her chin and gave her a serious look. "But I think it's almost time for dinner."

Her stomach rumbled at the mention of food and she grimaced. They had taken a few vegetables when they got herbs but the measly lunch was hardly enough when they spent hours afterwards in physical activity.

"Ok guys. Good job, we'll go through the routine again tomorrow." She dismissed the class and when they had gone went back to face Inuyasha.

He was gone.

Inuyasha shut the sliding entry door behind him as he walked to the top of the dojo steps. A pale woman in priestess garb stepped out of the trees.

"Kikyou." He greeted in a monotone.

"Inuyasha." She raised cold eyes to meet his burning gold ones. "It has been too long."

He didn't respond. His heart had still jumped when he saw her, but it was followed by a dull ache. Suddenly he recognized the feeling, it was the same reaction he had when he visited his mother's grave. Grief. Not love.

He was grieving for Kikyou still, but his body no longer reacted to her as though she were alive. Over the years her smell had even faded, like his mother's had from his clothes and hair after she passed. Once she had smelled like lemon tree blossoms and mahogany, so similar to how Kagome smelled now, but the creature standing before him smelled like clay and tears. He realized that he pitied her.

Despite having almost none of her soul and absolutely none of her heart, Kikyou's mind was sound and she recognized the look in his eyes and hissed at him.

"Don't you dare pity me Inuyasha. You who are half-demon and will never be all man." She laughed at the flicker of pain that went through his eyes.

A sound like a firework and dozens of tiny lights made her stop laughing as the lights formed a necklace similar to Inuyasha's but made of red beads around her neck. Her expression turned furious as she tried to pull them off and was unable.

"Who _dares_ to put subjugation beads on ME?"

"I did." Kagome stepped off the porch. "You have tried to kill Inuyasha too many times for me to allow you near him without protection."

Inuyasha looked back and forth between the two. He still felt an obligation to Kikyou for not protecting her but Kagome's words had stuck with him for the past years.

"_When are you going to realize that you are in love with the idea of Kikyo? With her soul… which is in me."_

He did love Kikyou's soul, it was what he had fallen in love with in the first place. The fact that it had changed locations hadn't changed his feelings, and the deeper and different feelings he felt now weren't for Kikyou's soul. They were for Kagome. They were for her vibrancy and love, which had given him life and taken it away when she left.

"So subjugate me little priestess." Kikyou dared Kagome.

"You know I can't."

"Oh you are indeed foolish. He will never do anything to hurt me." Flat brown eyes turned on Inuyasha.

"Kikyou…" He began, loading the word with his desire to resolve things and puting her to rest and out of the tormented half-life she led now. However, the instant her name left his lips she was blown off her feet and into the air in an opposite reaction to what happened to Inuyasha when he was given a "sit" command. "What the? KIKYOU!" He yelled after her reflexively.

This gave her another burst of sacred energy, sending her beyond sight of the village.

"Well that was interesting." Miroku commented from the doorway.

Inuyasha was silent during dinner. Kagome appeared nonplussed by this and when she finished her soup and rice she cleared her dishes and excused herself.

She wasn't sure how to feel. Inuyasha had shown clearly that he still had feelings for Kikyou, yet she didn't regret the decision to collar Kikyou if it made him safer. Despite all that they had been through, all that she had told him, their embrace and their "blushing" game… he still wanted Kikyou.

A single tear rolled down her cheek and fell to the floor before she could stop it. She hastily brushed her hand across her cheek, erasing the evidence that it had been there at all.

_Stop feeling sorry for yourself._ She thought as she undressed. _That idiot wouldn't see reason if it painted itself blue and danced naked in front of him._ And with that interesting mental image she shrugged into the white kimono for cleansing that Miroku had given her as a parting gift and belted it. It fell to her ankles and she slipped the matching white haori over it before quietly walking out the backdoor of the house to the small waterfall Miroku had shown her on their tour of the school. It was down a narrow dirt path just out of sight of the house and there was a wooden bucket on a low hanging branch that she picked up on her way. The bucket was not only for bathing purposes but also let anyone else know that someone was already at the waterfall.

Placing the bucket upside-down at the edge of the rocky pool she folded the haori and put it on top, then carefully stepped onto the large flat boulder that she was told Inuyasha had put there as a wedding gift to Miroku. It was smooth but was scrubbed weekly to prevent slippery algae from building up on it. She settled cross-legged in front of the pounding water, tucking the hem of her kimono underneath her modestly and carefully scooted back into it.

The clear crisp stream was cold, which was to be expected in October. So she took deep breaths and templed her hands, seeking the quiet state of mind that allowed her to keep the power of the sacred jewel pure.

As the water soaked her hair and kimono it became transparent enough for her skin to show a series of black marks that encircled her ribs. The night before Inuyasha had been too busy trying not to look at her that he didn't notice it, but she had a sutra tattooed around her body for concealment and containment over where the jewel rested.

She went through high school fending off attackers almost daily who were drawn to its power and finally had come up with a solution with a boy studying religion in her freshman year of college. They tested the theory by painting the combined sutras on an undershirt and she wore that under her normal clothes. It worked beautifully… for about a week until the paint started rubbing off. A permanent marker worked better but it too failed after a month and the ink faded in the wash. It had been the boy, Ryu, who had suggested the tattoo. It only took another month of fighting off ill-wishers to convince her.

The sutra itself was as wide as a belt and actually turned out quite elegant as she chose an artist who specialized in calligraphy tattoos to do it. The hardest part had been when they had to go over the narrow scars on her ribs from when Mistress Centipede had torn out the jewel the very first time. But it had been worth it, no one had attacked her since. After that she turned the tables and started hunting demons herself, she would never be nearly as good as Sango because she only studied self-defense with the exception of archery. Still, she had surprised Inuyasha and it had all been worth it just to see the look on his face.

* * *

Inuyasha had mixed feelings. This was not unusual for him as he spent years grappling between his desire to resolve things with Kikyou and his desire to live out his life with Kagome. Part of him was angry that he had been responsible for causing Kikyou harm once again, part of him got a warm fuzzy feeling at the fact that Kagome had put the beads on Kikyou to prevent harm coming to him and yet another part was struggling not to find his former love being blasted off of her feet kind of funny.

After all the hurt she had put him through, knowing full well that he was not responsible for killing her, he just wanted to put it all to rest. He wanted something else, something Kikyou never wanted him to have, alive or dead. He wanted to live as he had been born, a half-demon, and he wanted to share that life with Kagome.

Suddenly the urge to hold her was so strong it physically staggered him. He ran back to their bedroom (even though it was theirs by accident and not by choice it still made it seem more like home) and found it empty.

"Damn." He muttered and as he made to leave the room a familiar smell tickled his sensitive nose. Like salty lemongrass.

He dropped to all floors and sniffed around until he found it, a tiny circle of drying salt water. One of Kagome's tears. Guilt crashed on him like a boulder, he'd made her cry, they hadn't been together for a whole day and he already made her cry. He stood and followed her scent out the backdoor and down a narrow path behind the dojo. He saw her at the same time he stopped being able to smell her, seated at the base of the waterfall in a nearly transparent kimono, eyes closed.

Inuyasha jumped to a high branch in a tree bordering the pool and faced away, keeping watch.

"Kagome…?" He asked tentatively after what felt like hours.

* * *

Kagome felt Inuyasha's aura as soon as he came near, it effectively pulled her out of her deep meditation but she stayed under the waterfall, slowly reawakening each sense. Two minutes after Inuyasha's arrival he called out to her.

"Kagome…?"

"Mm." She made a small affirmative noise that she knew he would hear even over the rushing water to let him know she heard him.

"It's cold outside, you should come out of there."

She stretched languidly and carefully scooted out of the waterfall. Immediately she found him seated in a tree high above her head and facing the dojo. It made her smile that he protected even her modesty as she slipped off the kimono and belted on the dry haori.

"Ok, I'm done."

He turned very carefully and jumped down when he saw that she was decent. Comparatively anyway, she still wore a haori that only covered her legs to the knee. It was the first time he had seen her legs bare since she'd returned. The night before it had been dark and he was careful not to look anywhere lower than her shoulder, but now seeing them again made him realize that he missed her old school uniform.

Kagome blushed as Inuyasha looked her over from her toes up with all the unselfconsciousness that his demon blood allowed him. When she shivered from the look he took off his own haori and wrapped it and an arm around her, warming her with his own body heat.

"What were you thinking? You could get sick!" He scolded her as they walked back to the house.

It was almost fully dark now and the deepening shadows pitched the path nearly black. Kagome stepped carefully but still managed to find the one root with her foot and trip. Without a word Inuyasha swung her onto his back.

"So you're not mad at me?" She asked meekly. His hands were under her thighs, holding her up and she was suddenly aware of the intimacy of the embrace. When they were younger it was just another way to travel, but now that they both had matured (somewhat), it was much harder to ignore the hand placement and the strength of his back and shoulders as she held on to him.

His ears twitched.

"Uh oh." She sighed and lay her head against his back.

"What?"

"Your ears are a dead giveaway Inuyasha, you are not sure how to feel and so you're not going to talk to me."

This time only one ear twitched, telling her that she had guessed correctly. "Hah! See?"

They miraculously made it back in the house without encountering anyone but Inuyasha did not set her down until they were back to the bedroom, where he placed her carefully on her feet.

"I'm not mad at you anymore." He stated quietly as he sat on the floor facing away to give her privacy to change. "A lot has happened in a really short time and I'm not even at full strength yet."

"So the first time we met, when you woke up from Kikyou's spell you weren't at full strength then either?" She shivered as the cool air in the room hit her bare and still damp skin. She decided to risk taking a little longer to dry off quickly.

"Nope. I had a little bit more adrenaline though. I woke up with no idea that so much time had passed and thinking that Kikyou was still trying to kill me."

Kagome slipped on her pajama pants and a bra to distract herself but couldn't help saying. "Yeah well she is still trying to kill you."

"That's not really her fault though!" He protested and jumped to his feet facing her.

"I'm not saying that it isn't sad! I'm saying that I don't trust her to not try and hurt you!" She argued back.

But he wasn't listening, he was staring at her midsection. Kagome looked down as well and realized that she had absent-mindedly put on a lacy bra that acted more as a decoration than cover-up.

She flushed scarlet as he dropped to his knees in front of her and grasped her ribs gently in both hands, running the pads of his thumbs down them. His face was inches from her nearly exposed breasts and her breath hitched.

"Inu… Yasha…" She gasped.

"What the hell is this?" He looked up at her angrily from where he was examining her tattoo.

"I-I-I…" She stammered, heart pounding so hard she could feel it. "What…? You… you're looking at the TATTOO?"

"Miroku! Get in here!" He yelled over his shoulder. "What the heck else would I… Oh." He realized he was eye level with strained lace over flushed soft flesh and gulped audibly. "Uh… um… uh…"

"What is it?" Miroku slammed open the sliding door to their bedroom.

Kagome only had seconds to react and followed her gut instinct. She grabbed Inuyasha by his arm and tossed him at Miroku, strengthened by adrenaline and the natural boost the jewel gave her. "SIT!" They both crashed to the floor, Miroku cushioning Inuyasha's fall.

"Jeez!" She covered herself and ran across the room to retrieve her pajama top.

"K… ome…" Miroku said weakly from the floor.

"Sorry about that Miroku, bad timing." She tried to play off her still flaming face with a nonchalant shrug.

"Where… can I get… one of those little white things for Sango?" His voice got stronger as he got his wind back and pointed a shaky finger at her.

"One of those…?" She looked down and realized he was talking about her bra. "SITSITSIT!"

* * *

Kagome and Sango sat demurely on one side of the main room in the dojo with the men on the other. Omi and Ede lay in the middle playing with the crayons Kagome had originally intended to give Shippou. Miroku had a band aid over the bridge of his nose and was seated on a cushion. He had been underneath Inuyasha when Kagome "sat" him, as was her intention.

She felt a little bad as Inuyasha stretched and adjusted his spine back into alignment.

"I'm sorry Inuyasha, you just made a really convenient weapon." She fought to keep from smiling as he snorted disdainfully.

"Let's stay focused on the more interesting development at hand." Miroku said and pointed at Kagome. "Raise your clothing please."

"Oh how I wish I could sit you." Sango narrowed her eyes at him. But she was distracted by Kagome raising her shirt and tying it just below her bust. "My goodness, is that a tattoo?"

"It's a sutra." Miroku approached Kagome and kneeled before her exposed midriff, all signs of lechery gone as his professional demeanor slid easily into place. "It's actually two sutras." He reached a finger forward to trace a line and stopped as a deep growl cut across the room.

"Watch it monk."

"Inuyasha calm down, I'm just examining her marks. This one is for concealment and this one for containment… which leads me to believe." He reached forward swiftly and lay a hand completely flat against her ribs, causing the skin not only there but across her whole body to glow faintly. "Damnit!"

Miroku rocked back, looking furious and intensely worried. "Why didn't you tell us?"

Inuyasha sat beside Kagome and sniffed her. "She smells the same."

"That would be the concealment charm."

"Ok. I'm lost." Sango said frustratedly. "What the heck is going on?"

Kagome sighed and dropped her shirt back into place. She took a deep breath and focused her energy, drawing power from the jewel and into her hands. When they glowed like her bones were made of candlelight she placed them on the floor and pushed out.

Omi gasped as the surge went through the dojo and looked at Kagome with wonder. "Obasan very good!"

"What just happened?" Sango asked dazedly. "I just felt Kagome's spiritual aura increase a hundredfold or more."

"She just purified the mountain." Miroku looked peaceful and worried at the same time, no small feat.

"How the heck did you do that?" Inuyasha exclaimed.

Kagome sighed. "I have the Shikon No Tama inside my body."

Inuyasha fainted.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Inuyasha was back in his peaceful dark place. But now he didn't want to stay, life was worth living again… even if the woman he loved happened to have the most powerful weapon known to man and demonkind inside her body.

A cool, slender hand was under his hair on his forehead, another on top of his hand. He groggily opened his eyes.

Miroku started laughing. "I can't believe you _fainted_!"

"Passed out." Inuyasha argued weakly as he pushed himself into a sitting position. "So it's all going to start again."

"No it's not." Kagome assured him. "That's what the tattoos are for, they hide the jewel, or else you guys would have noticed the minute I walked in. The fact that the best demon slayer, half-demon warrior and monk in the world didn't notice is a very good sign in my opinion. I can keep the jewel controlled, just like you control your demon blood Inuyasha, it's no different." She used soothing tones and stroked his hair, calming him the way you would a frightened child.

It annoyed him that it was working.

"It is VERY different, you weren't BORN with it… in… oh." Inuyasha trailed off as he remembered that Kagome _had_ been born with the sacred jewel in her body.

"It's not as bad as it could be; you guys will just have to burn my body when I die so that I can take the jewel over just like Kikyou did."

Inuyasha's hackles raised and he growled. "And just who said you were going to die?"

"Not NOW you idiot, when I die of natural causes."

"Can we PLEASE stop talking about you dying?"

"Oba and Oji are loud." Ede commented to Omi. "Maybe they already married."

Omi held up a picture of a stick-figure Inuyasha with overlarge fangs and ears yelling and pointing at a stick-figure Kagome with large lopsided circles for breasts who had her back turned.

"What the-?" Kagome looked over when Ede giggled and her eyes widened at the picture. "I do not—they're not THAT big." She examined her chest which made up in shape and perk for what little it lacked in mass. "They're normal!"

"Better than-" Inuyasha began to chime in before the subject matter registered and he turned beet red.

"Definitely a little bigger than normal." Miroku put in helpfully.

Sango hit him with her haraikotsu. "Sorry Kagome, Omi has picked up a few traits from her father's bloodline."

Kagome smiled forgivingly and pulled a small pad and pencil from the pocket of her pajamas, making a small mark in it.

"What's that?" Inuyasha jumped on the opportunity to change the subject.

"Just keeping score." Kagome smiled and showed him a miniature score board with "Blushed" written at the top and their names on separate sides. There were three marks under Inuyasha's name and only two under hers.

"Hah! I'm winning!"

"That's how many times that person has blushed, I'm winning."

"What! Why?" He jabbed a finger at her. "You have blushed WAY more times than me."

"Pssh. I only started counting from the meadow."

"What happened in the meadow?" Sango asked slyly with a knowing grin as Miroku was still too indisposed to ask the lecherous questions.

Both of them blushed and Sango pulled the pencil from Kagome's fingers and wrote two marks.

"You know what Sango…" Kagome started, remembering some of the things that she had left in her back pack from her college dorm room. "I think we should play twister."

* * *

"You are MEAN!" Sango exclaimed as she stood with one foot on green and one on blue.

"You gotta put your right hand on yellow!" Kagome sang.

Sango tried to reach around her stomach but couldn't. "If I'm out then you're in, give me that." She stepped off the board, leaving Miroku stretched out over Inuyasha. The twins were on one side as Kagome had said they only had to play on blue and red since they were little.

"This is not how I envisioned this going." Miroku grumbled.

"It aint my fault you won't just give up."

"Right foot red!" Sango yelled.

Miroku did a precarious flip to his back to put his foot on the red circle Inuyasha's foot moved to moments before, leaving his arms crossed and his butt against Inuyasha's back.

Kagome stepped forward and grinned at both of them.

"Left hand blue!"

Ede fell with an "oof!" and Miroku's next acrobatic move put his face inches from Kagome's. Inuyasha arched his back, pushing the monk further away from her.

"Let's see how long you can keep that up." Miroku laughed at Inuyasha, who was on only his toes with one foot.

"I bet I can last longer than you monk!"

"I beg to differ sir! I have plenty of stamina and viri-oh, you weren't talking about that."

Ede settled into Sango's lap and pushed the spinner. "Red!"

"Left foot." Sango added.

Miroku slunk smoothly under Kagome, putting his face inches from her chest. Inuyasha pushed Miroku's foot off of the red circle they shared without lifting his own and the monk fell. While this achieved the purpose the half-demon intended, it also meant that Miroku fell smack on top of him. Inuyasha let out a grunt but managed to not fall by holding both of them up.

"Miroku, you're out." Sango called.

"But Inuyasha cheated!"

"If he hadn't done it I was about to, get over here."

Miroku harrumphed and got up off Inuyasha, putting as much weight into his hands as possible as he pushed up. Again Inuyasha tapped into his superhuman strength so as to not lose the game and held strong.

"Good boy." Kagome smiled and patted his head with her free hand.

"Right hand green!"

Kagome reached over Inuyasha to put her hand on green. This continued for a few more turns with Omi eventually getting tired of the game and returning to her crayons. Both Inuyasha and Kagome were laughing as he contorted sideways and she ducked under the arch of his body.

"You can't keep it up forever Inuyasha!" She knocked the back of his knee with her elbow. "Give up now and I'll go easy on the teasing!"

"Not gonna happen!" He responded in kind and moved into the next position, quickly tickling Kagome on his way.

"Cheat!"

"If you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen!"

The door slammed open with a bang and everyone froze. Inuyasha looked around from his compromising position arched over Kagome's body and growled.

"What the hell is this?" A deep all too familiar voice yelled.

"Kouga?" Kagome twisted to see the wolf-demon. "It is you! Time out!" She dropped on top of Inuyasha, sending him crashing to the ground and leapt to her feet.

"I knew I smelled you!" Kouga swept her into a bear (or wolf) hug and swung her around. "We were all so worried about you! Wait till I tell the rest of the pack!"

Kagome grinned and leaned back as soon as her feet touched the ground to get a better look at him. "My gosh! I think you've gotten even brawnier since the last time I saw you! What have you been doing, lifting boulders?"

"No, he just finally traded in the last of his brain for bulk." Inuyasha grumbled as he picked himself up off the ground. "and you cheated, I win!"

Kagome rounded on him. "No way! I called timeout AND I could have "sat" you at any point during the game and didn't!"

"What kind of game makes a man lay on top of a woman—besides the obvious—and where can I get one?" Kouga asked, surveying the Twister mat.

"I KNOW right?" Miroku agreed excitedly and turned to his wife. "As soon as you're done being pregnant we have to play."

"Woah! Didn't see you there Sango, you were blocked by that small mountain." Kouga pointed at Sango's belly with a pointy grin.

"Yuck it up demon." She threw a pillow at him with deadly accuracy.

"As for your question Kagome, I have been lifting weights." Kouga turned back to the girl with a broad grin and flexed his arms for emphasis. "Three in fact."

"Oh! I didn't realize Ayame had already delivered!" Miroku exclaimed with a smile for the wolf demon tribe leader. "Three?"

"Yup. All healthy, it's a fine litter of pups. Two boys and a girl." Kouga puffed his chest proudly. "But I don't want you to feel like I replaced you Kagome." He gave her an apologetic look. "When dog-breath there gave up we assumed you were really gone for good."

Kagome waved away his apology. "S'okay, we just missed our chance Kouga." She heard a thunk as Inuyasha's jaw hit the floor and grinned.

Kouga winked over-obviously at her. "It's never too late you know."

"Unlike _wolves_, dog demons don't leave their mates! So get away from Kagome!" Inuyasha threw his characteristic hissy fit as he dragged Kagome back to his side.

"And who exactly is YOUR mate mutt?" Kouga rocked back on his heels and flashed his fangs, but with a twinkle still evident in his eyes.

"KA-!"

"OKAY! I think that's enough fighting for one day boys!" Kagome interrupted loudly, putting herself between the two canines.

Kouga straightened and grasped Kagome's hands. "You have to come to the cave and meet the pups, they're just starting to teethe."

"Will do, thanks for dropping by Kouga."

"Thanks for coming back! Now that the mutt is on his feet we can finally settle our score!" Kouga left as abruptly as he had come, patting the twins on the head on his way out. "See ya!"

"Oji woof go?" Omi asked with a huge yawn.

"He went back to his family, and it's your bed time little misses." Miroku swung the girls up, each under an arm like a sack of potatoes.

"Nigh Ojisan, nigh Obasan." Ede said and waved as they left the room.

"Goodnight Omi-chan and Ede-chan" Kagome called back.

"I should head to bed too, it got late on us." Sango rocked forward a few times, trying to get up before she was lifted and placed on her feet by Inuyasha.

"Stop that stuff or you're gonna pop." He said gruffly and crossed his arms.

Sango put her hand against his cheek and smiled radiantly up at him. "We're so happy you're home Onii-chan."

Inuyasha stared after her as she left, a naked look of bewilderment on his face.

_Did you ever doubt that we are all family Inuyasha?_ Kagome thought, taking his arm and steering him in the opposite direction that the others took. "Come on you big idiot."

He wordlessly let her pull him into their shared bedroom and set him on the ground. His expression didn't change until she rolled out both mattress pads next to each other, making one large bed.

"Kagome?"

* * *

Author's note:

Thanks so much for all the wonderful support everyone! I really appreciate it. More fluff coming soon for all you romantics ~.^

'Til next time!

-Azure.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Kagome looked up with only the faintest hint of blush and pulled down the covers on his bed. "It's ok; you've had a long day."

Inuyasha unbelted and slid off his haori, folding and placing it next to the bed before sliding under the blankets. Kagome stood and blew out the lantern, then jumped quickly back into her side of the bed.

"Inuyasha…?" She asked hesitantly after a moment's silence.

"Hmm?"

"At some point we need to talk about this whole… mate… thing." She reached out a hand, trying to catch his, and touched his shoulder. She followed the lines of his arm down to his hand and entwined their fingers. "What exactly does it mean?"

He thought for a moment about how best to put the lengthy philosophy that defined mates. "Well… it's not how it sounds. Mates aren't always… uh… intimate. A mate really means a partner, someone to spend your life with, it's more complicated and kinda more simple than marriage."

"So it's more like… a business partnership?" Kagome was officially confused, she tried to let go of Inuyasha's hand but he put his free one over her captured fingers gently.

"It can be. It was that way with my father and Sesshomaru's mother, she is a strong sorceress and cat demon, and he was a powerful general, it was an arrangement of politics, not love."

Kagome filed away the fact that Sesshomaru was half cat for later teasing purposes.

"But… I guess it's my stupid weak mortal blood, but I don't want to spend my life in a partnership of convenience."

Kagome reached up to touch Inuyasha's face and found him smiling faintly.

"I'm going to make a wild guess and say that your father's relationship with your mother was about love and not politics."

"Definitely not about politics. Sesshomaru's mother fell in love just before he met my mom so they broke their arrangement. Mates can change if it's a mutual decision, and some demons won't get mated to someone they don't care about." He took a deep breath. "So… What I'm getting at is… I would like you to consider… beingmypartner." He said the last so fast that she had to take a moment and decipher it.

"I didn't realize I had a choice, I thought you had already decided for me." She laughed, feeling giddy.

"uh… well technically everyone in the demon community already views us as mates, because of the way we worked together to defeat Naraku. Demons don't really form alliances like that with the exceptions of mates and when they get together for war. That I view you as my equal and that you're someone I spend a lot of time with means more to demons than it does to humans."

"So nothing is changing." She stated flatly, feeling less giddy.

"Not really!" He said cheerfully. "We just have a formal agreement now."

She pulled her hands back. "You are such a wuss."

"What? What's that? Is that some pet name in your time?"

"Not. Even. Close."

Inuyasha sensed danger and reacted instinctively. "Don't get all upset! There's no reason for that!"

"You are the densest, most boorish, idiotic… thick-headed… DUMMY when it comes to women's feelings!"

"Huh? What do you want from me?"

"How about an ounce of freakin romance! Or even a drop! Hell, I'd settle for a molecule!" She raged.

"You keep this up and I'll show you romance!" He growled back.

"Yeah right! You wouldn't know romance if it weighed a ton and I dropped it on your head!" She challenged.

"You just watch! Keep pushin me and I'll… I'll _kiss _you!"

"Pssh. You don't have the guts."

"Oh you're gonna get it now!"

Kagome's eyes had adjusted enough to the partial light coming from the lantern in the hall that she could see Inuyasha's silhouette as he propped up on his elbows and leaned towards her. Every nerve was screaming in her body as he got closer.

"While we're young Inuyasha." She couldn't help but get in another jibe.

"It's gonna happen. You're gonna regret pushin me to the edge!" He put one hand on either side of her head and got so close she could feel his breath on her lips as his silvered hair fell around them like a curtain.

"BY BUDDHA AND ALL THAT IS HOLY WOULD YOU GET _ON_ WITH IT ALREADY!" Miroku and Sango shouted the last five words in unison from the cracked open doorway.

Kagome leapt straight up like a startled cat, knocking Inuyasha over.

"What the HELL?" She scooted to the far side of the bedding. "How long have you two been there?"

"Long enough to grow a beard! You are so absurd! Just kiss her for the love of mercy Inuyasha! I'm tired and want to get to bed!" Miroku yelled frustratedly.

"Don't let us stop you!" Inuyasha yelled back, sounding like he had lost years off his life.

"I think Inuyasha is too much of a sissy to kiss her in front of us dear." Sango sighed.

"I-What? I am not!" He crawled back over to Kagome and before she could react, kissed her.

On the cheek.

Kagome felt tingles from where his lips made contact with her skin. She could feel the pressure of his fangs and the gentleness with which he held her. His hair fell softly across her body and she went completely limp in his arms.

"Hubbalubawoo…" She melted into the bedding.

"… Well I'm actually impressed." Miroku said and stood, pulling his wife up with him.

"Definitely, I'll have to get you to kiss me sometime Inuyasha." Sango grinned and shut the door.

Their feet faded away and Inuyasha took a deep sniff, satisfied as their scents faded out as well since he did not trust them to actually leave.

"Ok I think they're gone. Kagome?" He looked down at her, his night vision being much better than a human's. "Are you ok? Did they scare you that much? I can relate, if my hair wasn't white already…" He picked the prone priestess up and she was as pliable as a wet noodle. "Did you faint? Do you need some cold water? I'm sorry I had to kiss you like that but they would have never gone away otherwise." His blush could have lit up the room. "It was not really fair for me to do that, I'm sorry… Hello?"

"I am enjoying the freakin moment! SHUT UP!" She jumped to her knees to yell at him and just as quickly went back to melting in his arms.

"Uh… Oookay." He carefully slid her under her covers and sat on top of his own, always keeping a hand on her. "What moment?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHH!" Kagome pulled her pillow over her face and screamed into it.

Inuyasha scooted back. "Everybody is crazy around here!"

Kagome pulled her pillow away to give him her best reduce-to-ash-now glare. He wasn't sure what to do for a moment, as Kagome was the one he traditionally hid behind when glared at, so he picked up his pillow and hid behind that.

A slender hand gently jerked the pillow out of his grip. "If I have to make all the moves around here so be it!" Kagome growled menacingly enough to compete with Inuyasha.

A cheer went up on the other side of the door and they jumped apart again.

"Would you two QUIT doing that?" Kagome yelled, pulling the door open and turning her RTAN glare on the two people crouched outside the door.

Miroku and Sango jumped back, looking sheepish. "Eh heheheh. You really haven't lost your edge Kagome, your wrath is as frightening as ever." Sango hid behind Miroku. "Don't hurt me! I'm pregnant, take him instead!"

"Some loving wife you are!"

"Miroku so help me if you two don't get out of here and stay away I'm going to purify you."

"I'll remind you that I am a monk madam and stay pure by virtue of my own spiritual powers!"

"Not as pure as I'm going to make you. So pure that the very idea of fornication will repulse you. So pure that you will never have a dirty thought again." Kagome cracked her knuckles menacingly.

Miroku had already picked up Sango and run for it.

Kagome slid the door shut with a weary sigh. "Let's just go to bed." She curled up under her covers, facing away from Inuyasha.

Hesitantly he got into bed too and tried to go to sleep knowing that his partner was sleeping inches from him.

* * *

Kagome woke up feeling extremely secure. She was being held and her back was pressed against something warm and… breathing?

She stifled a scream as she recognized the hand attached to the arm her head was resting on from the claws on it. Sometime in the night she had migrated onto Inuyasha's bed and was now the little spoon to his big spoon. Her head fit just under his chin and although her legs were long enough to conform along his thighs and knees, her feet did not quite reach his. Color flooded her cheeks as she realized that Inuyasha's other hand was on her stomach, underneath her pajama top.

Quietly she tried to extricate herself so Inuyasha would not wake up knowing that SHE had somehow gotten onto HIS bed. As soon as she scooted an inch forward, losing contact with him on her back and thighs, a rush of chilly air swept between them.

Inuyasha shivered and pulled her flush against him again, this time with the arm draped over her side holding her more securely in place.

_Crapcrapcrap. _She thought. _How do I get out of this one!_

To make matters worse she felt a stirring where her butt was pressed, she had heard about morning "responses" that happened to men but had never spent the night with a man pressed against her. As she stifled a squeak and tried to subtly get free again, she accidently rubbed _there_ and he pulled her back to him again.

_WhatdoIdo? What do I do?_ She started panicking. If Inuyasha woke up to find them like this he would move his bed to the other side of the country from embarrassment.

A brilliant solution hit her and she summoned the power of the jewel into one hand, which she placed on his hip and sent out a little jolt of purifying energy. As she had hoped, the sacred energy counteracted the demon blood in Inuyasha's veins and the miniature internal battle distracted his body and quelled his… response.

Unfortunately it also woke him up.

"Ten more minutes!" He grumbled and turned over to his back. Kagome breathed a sigh of relief until the arm she had been resting on pulled her against his side once again, this time putting his forearm in between her breasts and hand resting on her lower stomach.

"Ohthat'sit!" She grumbled, unfortunately stringing the words too close together and activating his subjugation beads.

She had never "sit"ted Inuyasha in his sleep or when he was lying on his back so the response was interesting. The beads pulled him over to his stomach—directly on top of her—and crashed his body down.

If she had been a normal human it would have done similar damage to that which she inflicted on Miroku the night before. But since she wasn't, she just ended up pinned with the wind knocked out of her.

"AAH! Would ya stop doin-!" Inuyasha pulled his face from where it had been pressed into Kagome's hair and cut off as he realized that she was completely pressed along the length of his entire body. The mattress had cushioned them enough to leave the floor intact, but not an inch along their bodies wasn't pressed as tightly together as possible. "Uh-uh-uhm-" he stammered.

"M-morning." She groaned out.


	10. Chapter 10

Heads up! Some sexiness in this chapter and *gasp* plot development!

* * *

Chapter 10

The breakfast table was unusually quiet. The twins finished eating quickly, sensing the tension and wanting to go back to their crayons before anyone started yelling again.

Sango and Miroku were under the impression that Inuyasha and Kagome were still angry with them and so followed their daughters as soon as was humanly possible, leaving the half-demon and priestess to their own devices.

"So-" Kagome started as Inuyasha said, "well-"

They both stopped talking and looked at each other, color marking both sets of cheeks.

"You go first." Kagome offered.

"No, no you go." Inuyasha returned hurriedly.

She laughed nervously, then caught the embarrassment in Inuyasha's expression and couldn't stop herself from bursting into real laughter.

"WHAT is so FUNNY?" He demanded.

"Your… face… this morning." She managed to choke out, clutching her sides. "You wouldn't… have been more… surprised if… Naraku had been… in the bed…" Her giggles renewed until she was just hiccupping and rubbing tears of mirth from her eyes.

The side of Inuyasha's mouth twitched in an almost smile. "Why DID you sit me this morning?"

Kagome gulped, but her giggle box was so thoroughly turned over that she just ended up cracking up again. "It… was an accident."

"How did you _accidentally_ sit me?" He stood up and loomed over her.

"I said "That's it"-" Despite trying to make the words clearly separate, the "s" still carried and activated his beads, sending him down on top of her again.

Inuyasha, sensing danger, put one arm crooked over Kagome's head to stop himself from crushing her against the ground. There was a pop as his shoulder dislocated from the effort but he still managed to keep from hurting her.

"… Ow." He rolled off her as soon as the beads would allow.

"Nice catch…" She trailed off as she saw him holding his shoulder and wincing. "What happened?"

He shrugged with his good shoulder. "S'no big deal." He grasped his arm firmly.

"What are you doing…?"

"I'm half demon Kagome." He explained as though talking to a very slow child. "I'll heal it wrong if I don't get it back in place fast."

"Jeez! Just because a hole in your gut isn't a big deal to you doesn't mean that you should shrug off everything!" Kagome swatted his good arm away and kneeled in front of him to untie his haori, slipping that and his shirt off his arm, leaving half of his chest bare.

"Uh… Kagome?"

"Hush." She ran her fingers gently over the joint, ignoring the feel of his skin, which was so much warmer than her own, and grasped strategically along his arm. "Ready?"

He nodded and bit his lip.

With a sudden jerk she popped the shoulder back into place and only the smallest hiss of breath from Inuyasha told her that it had hurt.

"I'm sorry." She didn't meet his eyes while she rotated his arm gently. "Does it feel right?"

"It's fine." He took her hand and moved it off his arm. "Thanks."

"Don't… mention it." She trailed off as she looked into his warm golden eyes, the only eyes she ever wanted to look into intimately. She was distracted by the ruby drop of liquid on his lip where he had bit it. "You're bleeding!"

He actually laughed outright. "You've bandaged my sword wounds, claw marks, actual gaping holes in my body and broken bones and you're worried over a drop of blood?"

"Just because I've seen you hurt before doesn't mean I'll ever be used to it Inuyasha." She brushed the blood away carefully, trying not to look at the well-shaped mouth it had come from. Despite her effort she felt her heart pick up its pace and knew from experience that Inuyasha would be able to hear the difference. "You know… you're… you're too…. Important to be bleeding all over the place." She blurted the words out and abruptly left the room before he could react.

Miroku walked in moments later and found Inuyasha half-dressed with a clawed hand raised in the direction Kagome had gone.

"I hate it when they tease you like that. Women just don't realize how painful it is for men to start and then stop suddenly." He commented benignly as he gathered Kagome and Inuyasha's dishes.

"Start what?" Inuyasha asked, rolling his already healed shoulder and redressing.

"Ah… nothing! Nothing at all!" He smiled a little too widely and muttered on his way out "You two are too naïve for your own good." Forgetting that if Inuyasha could hear the change in Kagome's heartbeat, he could certainly hear undertoned words.

_It's not like I'm some idiot!_ Inuyasha thought frustratedly. Women had never fazed him before Kikyou, who drew his human blood and made his heart race, and then Kagome, who made him feel whole for the first time in his existence. That was what first made him care for her, her acceptance. Later it had been her compassion for everyone that made him love her, and then her passion and spunk that made his pulse jump every time he could smell or touch her.

That morning had been risky, and he smiled ruefully as he remembered it.

_He had woken early to find that she had scooted across the bedding, naturally drawn to his body heat, as demons ran hotter than humans and so as a half demon his temperature was always a little high. He embraced her when he felt her shiver, drawing her into his warmth and lightly dosed off and on through the early hours. When she started moving against his body he wasn't sure how to react, then she had jolted him and fully stripped sleep away from him._

"_Ten more minutes!" He mumbled and flipped over to his back, pulling her with him and keeping her pinned as payback for shocking him with sacred energy. He didn't mean to have his hand so intimately placed on her body but as that was where it naturally landed he couldn't risk pulling it away for fear of her realizing he was completely awake._

_While he was deliberating what to do, she accidentally "sit"ted him, pulling his body on top of hers. That time he didn't have time to cushion her but the mattress saved her from any real harm._

_He yelled, taken completely by surprise and his reflexive response had been to say "Would you stop doing that!" But he didn't get through the whole thing as every millimeter of his body had been electrified with the awareness of hers._

"_M-Morning." She said in a breathless voice that hadn't helped his predicament in the slightest._

_He'd retreated quickly and thanked the Buddha, the heavens, and whatever else he could think of, that clothes in his era were baggy._

He pushed open the door and stormed outside to do something physical to work off his pent-up energy. The air burned his sensitive nose by being a few degrees colder and he settled for chopping wood. Unfortunately he'd have to chop down the whole forest to work off half the tension that had built up since Kagome's return.

At least he wasn't bored anymore.

* * *

Kagome dragged the wood and straw dummy for the dojo students into a small clearing out of sight of the house. She needed to blow off some steam, being around Inuyasha again was like having a constant adrenaline rush, until she adjusted to it she was going to be a little high-strung.

Her graduation present to herself had been a neat little gadget that she saw in a magazine on an airplane. It was a compact solar charger for electronic devices. She had bought it, using all of her savings, in an impulse, hoping that she would need it if she ever went back in time again. The only thing that she honestly thought she could not live without in the feudal era was her music.

She put her ear buds in, picked an album with heavy bass beats and started stretching. After a few salutations to the sun she was ready to start with the real work out and tapped the dummy experimentally with her foot. It was sturdier than most modern exercise equipment and she went through her usual cycle of kicks and punches before getting into the more specialized movements of elbowing, kneeing, and hammerfisting.

Though she rarely used offensive techniques, she kept herself practiced in them. Especially with the jewel inside her it was better to be safe than sorry. She was so engrossed that she barely registered Inuyasha's presence.

* * *

Inuyasha had been cutting wood when he heard Kagome yell and rushed to see what was wrong. It took him a moment to calm his protect instinct when he saw she was alright. He considered using the Tetsusaiga on the dummy but figured Kagome would be upset about his interference.

She had music playing from one of the little gizmos that she had shown him years before from her world, except they were much smaller now. He decided to stay near since she wouldn't hear if anyone attacked.

Jumping into his customary perch in a nearby tree, he put his arms behind his head and watched her through half-closed eyes. She was not beautiful in the way that his mother had been, the kind of beauty that made people weep, but she had something that set her apart. Some kind of inner brilliance, something in addition to her spiritual powers that made her so beautiful to him. A combination of confidence, love, acceptance, so many things that humans took for granted that he had seen only glimpses of growing up. Kagome was the first person he had ever met who honestly passed no judgment on anyone, no matter how they looked, and could truly redeem lost souls.

To him she symbolized hope. Hope for life, a good life, with a family.

As she worked over the dummy, he could almost hear the music she was listening to, something sweet like a flute. His attraction to her grew, slowly at first, then exponentially. Before he knew it he had jumped down and was capturing her wrist as she pulled it back to strike the dummy again. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him to take her, to claim her, here in the forest.

That thought alone stopped him cold. He didn't want to claim Kagome, he wanted her to choose to be with him. Something was wrong.

"Inuyasha?" She took the small music makers out of her ears to talk to him. The instant they were out her eyes glazed over and she stared up at him with an expression of slavish lust. "Take me…"

Inuyasha dug through the years of training in how to quell the urges of his demonic blood to try to find the will power to resist taking advantage of the woman he loved. It was very difficult. He was struck suddenly by the realization that Kagome hadn't been trying to take his pants off (as she was working on now) when she had her music makers on and clapped his hands over his ears, cutting out the sweet notes of the flute.

His lust abated to normal levels—which were still nearly unbearable, but not mind-controlling. Unfortunately this meant that he was no longer holding her wrist so she had both hands to work at removing his clothes. He tried using his one arm to cover his ears and one to hold up his clothing as Kagome soundlessly pulled at it but she had surprisingly agile fingers and already had his haori off and was sliding her hands over his chest under his shirt.

"Kagome stop!" He gasped at the feel of her touching his skin.

"Inuyasha…" she looked up at him and he could read his name on her lips. Seeing her say his name with love and lust in her expression was almost enough to make him give up trying to stop her and let her have her way with him.

It still felt too much like rape to him though, and when and if he and Kagome finally took that step he wanted her to have control of her actions.

He had a brilliant idea and used one hand to put her music maker back into her ear, keeping his own ears covered. While he was trying to find the other one Kagome put her mouth against his chest.

The touch of her lips against his bare skin made him go cross-eyed and he took several deep, calming breaths that came out suspiciously more like shallow gasps. He tried a different tactic and started trying to drown out the leftover vestiges of the music by tunelessly yelling, "LA LA LA LA LA LA LAAAA!"

Kagome looked up at him with a wicked glint in her eye and he cringed. If this was mind-control then this was the point where whoever was on the other end would make Kagome try to kill him.

Instead, in addition to feathering kisses across his collar, she started slipping a hand into his loosened pants.

"Nonononono!" He knew if she started touching him _there_ it was game over for him and in a frenzied panic found her other music maker and popped it back in her ear.

She shook her head and her eyes cleared, but the proof that she was back to normal was the deep scarlet color that was creeping into her cheeks. Her saw her mouth begin to form a word that looked very similar to "sit" but she paused before finishing and took in his appearance.

He tried to picture how he must look, one arm flattening his ears, the other holding together his clothing, no doubt breathing hard. Experimentally she pulled her music maker out of one ear part way and fell against him, this time with her eyes staying clear but her body acting almost entirely of its own accord. She found the will to cover her ear again with a shaking hand and with her eyes downcast, retied his belt for him.

"Thanks." He smiled and made the mistake of removing his arm from his head, forgetting momentarily why it was there. Immediately a wave of lust crashed into him so powerfully that he fell to his knees and grabbed her waist, pushing her shirt up with his thumbs and tasting the salty flesh of her stomach with a swift flick of his tongue.

Her own knees started shaking and he supported her weight while pushing his face against her skin, breathing deeply as he had the first night she had been back. He felt a pressure over his ears and he moaned at the feel of her touching them.

The moan cut short as once again the sound of a flute was blocked out. He carefully put her shirt back into place and slipped his hands from around her waist. His hearing was still good enough that the faintest murmur of the music could still be heard and he leaned his head against her stomach; looking at the ground and wrestling with the intensely warm, tight feeling of his skin and how scratchy and uncomfortable his clothes felt against it. He tried desperately not to think about how much better it would feel to have Kagome's satiny skin pressed naked against his own and put his hands over hers in an attempt to completely block out the music that seemed to echo in his head.

He let out a scream of frustration and anger that he couldn't hear. He was immensely frustrated by his own self-control and that he hadn't just gone the easy route and taken Kagome, and he was angry that someone would try to make him do something like that to her when she deserved so much better.

He looked up at her with his eyes so brightly gold they looked molten and mouthed one word.

"Run."

She nodded and carefully moved her hands out from under his, taking off in the direction of the house as soon as she was freed. Inuyasha lunged forward at the same instant, running as fast as he could away from the house. When all he could smell of Kagome was her lingering scent on his clothes, he moved his hands from his ears once again.

His own stubborn resolve pushed him in the direction the music was coming from but the louder it got the stronger his urge to turn around and run back to Kagome grew. Finally he could go no further and started tearing at the trunks of trees with his claws out of sheer frustration. With the music this loud any attempts to block it out were fruitless.

"Inuyasha." A voice cut over the music.

He turned slowly but his nose already told him who he would find standing there. Clay and tears.

Kikyou stood in all her righteous glory, apparently unscathed by her earlier flight. While all similarities in scents had faded long before, she still looked far too much like Kagome for his comfort.

"Get away from me!" He growled, blood dripping from his fingers where the bark had cruelly bit into them.

"What. Are you doing?" She asked disinterestedly.

"Can't you hear it?" He turned his growl skywards and let it grow in volume. "That fucking music is going to make me crazy!"

"… er." Kikyou completed in an undertone and walked a step closer.

"I mean it! Stay away from me Kikyou!" He was having a hard enough time telling his body that it wasn't Kagome standing before him, that it was a doll who looked like Kikyou, who looked like Kagome. Luckily for him, saying her name blasted her skywards and away. That time he didn't feel even the slightest bit conflicted about Kagome having collared her, he was intensely grateful to rid himself of all temptation of her. "KIKYOUKIKYOUKIKYOU!" He yelled for good measure, making sure no one who remotely reminded him of the woman he was lusting after was nearby.

He snarled ferociously to the heavens and felt the creeping fire in his veins that signaled his demon blood trying to gain control, the familiar burn helped curb his arousal but he knew that the tradeoff would not be worth it in the long run. Reflexively he thought of what usually calmed him when the demon inside him tried to take over, Kagome. But this just sent him into a further frenzied state so he grabbed the tetsusaiga and bit into the sheath, sinking his fangs deeply enough to touch the blade. That calmed him enough that he just had to wrestle with the lust.

He ran the scene earlier over and over in his head, thinking of her moving her hands from under his, and how small and delicate they had felt. He thought of the taste of her skin still lingering on his tongue and the feel of her waist in his hands, so much smaller than he thought it would be. Her power and personality always made her seem almost as big as he was, but in truth she stood a head shorter. His chest tingled where her mouth had been and he shut his eyes tightly, trying to block the sensations.

As abruptly as it had started, the music stopped, leaving Inuyasha gasping in what felt like the first full breaths of air in years. When he had his body under firm (or rather not firm) control again he yanked his teeth out of his sheath and took off again towards the direction the music had come from.

He ended up in a clearing that smelled different from the surrounding forest; he could clearly detect the metallic tang of demon, but also an oversweet scent. _That must be the (Kagome) demon's breath if it (Kagome) was playing (Kagome) a flute it would be doing (Kagome) a lot of exhaling._ He reasoned. His mind was not completely free of the after effects of the spell and Kagome was making an appearance a little more than usual in his thoughts. He sternly told his body to focus on the task at hand, which was not remotely sexual in any way, but certain parts of his anatomy were firmly rebelling.

Shaking his head in an attempt to clear it he took several deep lungfuls of the air in the clearing through his nose, memorizing the scent.

He waited a few more moments, determining if he was calm enough to return to the house and turned back in that direction.

* * *

Author's note:

Thanks to all my followers! The support has been super awesome, makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I will answer any questions that you have, except of course about the plot because I want you to be surprised. About the title, Wolf, I honestly totally blanked when I was trying to think of something. Now it would be like… The Return of the Priestess and the Jewel, or The Most Amazing Story Ever (But that was taken by Rumiko Takahashi). Hopefully my next story will have a title and summary that make the angels sing! Will update soon friends.

-Azure.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Kagome was curled under the covers of her bedding in the corner of her shared bedroom with Inuyasha. The thought "shared bedroom" sent tingles down to her toes and she deemed herself not quite over the influence of whatever had been in the clearing.

She would have to remove all of her skin to forget the feel of Inuyasha's hands, the strength in them and the control he had over that strength as he held her passionately to him. She may have been able to deal with it if all he did was hold her but the memory of the slightly rough feel of his tongue across her abdomen was making her crazy.

_He's just a male, you've dealt with men before._ She thought desperately to herself. But the few times Hojou had held her and the one time he had kissed her combined didn't evoke half the response that Inuyasha could by just _looking_ at her.

She flatly refused to take out her headphones, for fear of hunting down Inuyasha if the strange music from the forest was still ongoing. Her one rap album was on repeat, it was the least romantic music she had and it usually just brought out the angry feminist in her when they talked about pimps and hos. But this time the idea of being a certain half-demon's ho was a lot more attractive a prospect than it should have been.

A familiar presence nearing made her burrow further into her blankets. It wasn't until a hand reached under the layers of bedding to lightly touch the top of her head that she emerged, blinking in the sudden light. Inuyasha sat cross-legged in front of her, his haori draped over his knees and his hands still wet with blood.

When he didn't attack her with his lips she took out the ear buds and quickly retrieved her medical kit. "Did you find out what it was?" she asked as she gently took one of his hands and examined the scrapes on his fingers.

He shook his head wordlessly. He looked like he'd been through hell and back again, pieces of bark clung to his hair and his blood had flecked his kimono in several places. "Definitely a demon. One I didn't recognize."

Kagome anesthetized his scrapes but didn't bind them as they would heal quickly enough to make bandages unnecessary. She also carefully wiped droplets of blood off his face where he had splattered himself.

Inuyasha kept his eyes downcast. "I'm sorry Kagome."

"For what?"

"I… I almost… my control is definitely… not as good as it should be." His shoulders slumped dejectedly. "I almost… took advantage."

Despite her blush Kagome laughed. "I think that there was a bigger chance of ME taking advantage of YOU. Your self-control was admirable Inuyasha."

"But you were under the spell for longer than me! I should have reacted sooner instead of making you go through something you didn't want to."

She put a hand under his chin and brought his eyes up to meet hers. "Inuyasha. That spell was not making me do anything I didn't want to do. I don't think it would have worked if I didn't think of you… like that." There was still color in her cheeks as she said it but her voice was clear and strong in its conviction. "It was just making me do it a lot faster than I'm ready for." She dug through her backpack and pulled out a pair of black sweatpants and a white shirt that was too big for her but was too comfortable to throw away. "Here. Put these on and we'll wash the blood and dirt out of your clothes."

"You… want to be with me? Like… Like that?" He looked dumbfounded.

"You. Are. An. Idiot." She hugged him tightly. "The only thing I don't like about you Inuyasha is how little you think of me. Everything else is… well, it's what brought me back to this era."

"I don't think little of you!"

"You think I don't have the capacity to love someone like you." She smiled and lightly flicked his nose. "Bad dog."

"Stop treating me like a dog!" But the admonishment was half-hearted, he was too busy being happy to be really angry. "So… you did come back for me?"

"Nah. I just felt so bad about breaking _Shippou's_ heart." She teased, then her expression grew serious. "We do need to be careful though, there's a pretty dangerous demon out there."

"And it's targeting us." Inuyasha said, clicking two pieces of the puzzle into place. "Because I saw Kikyou on the mountain and I wasn't affected the way I was with you. I could control myself." He frowned. "Spells and stuff like that really aren't my strength, we should talk to Miroku about this."

Kagome tried to stifle a giggle. "Oh this is going to be a fun conversation."

* * *

"So." Miroku leaned back, a serious and thoughtful expression on his face. "You think someone cast an enchantment of lust on the two of you."

Inuyasha nodded seriously. "It was like my body had a mind of its own, I had no control at all."

"And you as well Kagome?"

She nodded in acquiescence. "Definitely uncontrollable."

Miroku sighed heavily. "I think I know what's going on."

Kagome rolled her eyes but Inuyasha stared at him with rapt attention.

"I'm not surprised at you Inuyasha, but Kagome, your parents really should have explained all this to you."

"Miroku…" Kagome started exasperatedly.

"No, it's ok, this is all perfectly natural. Often when one is in a state of denial as long as you two have been your bodies can take over. I myself have had to use all of my self-control on many an occasion."

"So we're not the first people for this to happen to?" Inuyasha asked seriously.

"My friend, these kinds of animalistic urges have been plaguing those with a moral code since before there were morals or codes. Since the beginning of time."

"Oh jeez." Kagome covered her face with her hands.

"So we're dealing with a really old demon."

"Why I myself have been overcome with lust more times than I can-… what? What demon?" Miroku broke off mid-reflection to look at Inuyasha confusedly, then understanding dawned on him and he nodded. "Some may call it a demon, others call it just the base wickedness inside us all. You are lucky my friend that you have found a woman with a drive to match your own."

"I think it grew stronger as time passed because I was gradually affected but Kagome was overcome all at once and so she had a stronger reaction." Inuyasha explained.

"Well we've always known you were a passionate girl Kagome. You are indeed a very lucky man my friend."

"Lucky? I wouldn't say lucky, we barely escaped with our clothes on!" Inuyasha protested and Kagome groaned.

"Resistance is futile Inuyasha, it always wins in the end." Miroku nodded sagely.

"Miroku! For Buddha's sake! We were caught in a spell by a demon, it played some kind of music that influenced us and Inuyasha tracked its scent into the woods!" Kagome burst out, unable to take it any longer. "While I am attracted to Inuyasha, this was different! It was like when Tsubaki cursed me."

The monk was silent for a moment. "A demon casting lust spells so strong no one can resist their pull? Where can I get one of those?" The last was murmured to himself but both Inuyasha and Kagome caught it.

"No Miroku, that's bad. This would have been rape." Kagome took Inuyasha's clenched hand in her own. "It wouldn't have been your fault Inuyasha, I already told you; you showed amazing restraint. It would have been rape to both of us because someone else was forcing us to act."

"I'll look into it." Miroku promised. "I just don't understand because it doesn't make sense. Why would someone want you two to become sexually involved? What benefit could it possibly have to a third party?"

* * *

A humanoid female demon walked down a badly lit tunnel and into a dank room filled with iron cages. Two of the cages had occupants, one of whom was a human boy, dirty and frightened. The other, unlike the first, was a female child so white and skinny it was clear they had been in captivity for a length of time.

"You were right." The demon commented in a silky tone, gently spinning the cage with the pale child in it. "They are strong, strong enough to resist my spell."

The child nodded mutely.

"The strongest power to come into the world will be born of the union of a half-demon and a priestess." The demon recited liltingly. "You're sure this is the baby of the one called Inuyasha and the priestess Kagome?"

The child nodded mutely again.

"I will try harder then. It is essential that they conceive for my plans to be realized. I MUST consume the child. I MUST have that power." The raw desire for power was evident in her every syllable. "If they resisted my enchantment then I must grow stronger so they cannot overcome me. I need better food." This last was directed at the healthy albeit frightened child. "Still. I will make do with human children for now."

She reached slender hands with fingers that were just long enough to be inhuman through the bars of the still cage. The fingers grew longer until they looked like huge pale spiders and she pierced the flesh over the boy's heart and the base of his skull.

As quickly as his eyes had widened in fear, they dulled and took on the flat vacant expression of the recently dead. The other child looked away, knowing what would happen next; once the life and soul had been drained the demon would throw the empty shell to her "pet."

The squeak of the cages hinges and the sickening dull thump followed by wet cracking sounds confirmed what the girl had already seen so many times before.

"Keep watching their future little witch, I want to know in what order to kill them."

"Yes Aruji." Came the barely audible response.

As the light receded with the demon's departure, silent tears cleared the dirt away from a white face as the girl began to cry.

* * *

"Bull shit!" Inuyasha said with vehemence.

"Read 'em and weep buster!" Kagome flipped over her last three cards. "Three jacks!" She pushed the towering stack of cards towards him. "Take 'em!"

He growled as he picked up the cards a few at a time "Hey! You lied about the eights!... AND the fives!"

"Well you didn't call BS on those didja?" Kagome stuck her tongue out at him. "I win."

Sango put down her cards with a sigh. "Again."

"It's not my fault you guys are such terrible liars! And Inuyasha, you look ridiculous."

The half-demon touched the bandanna he'd tied over his head. "It aint my fault that you cheat!"

"I do not cheat. It's not MY fault that your ears give you away every time."

"You should have stopped looking!"

"You should learn how to lie better!"

"No wonder the lust spell didn't work, the twins are more mature than you two." Sango grinned, having been filled in about everything by Miroku.

"Not funny." Kagome growled, gathering the cards into a pile again.

"You know Inuyasha. I think this is the first time I've seen you in different clothes." Sango commented, ignoring Kagome. "It's actually very flattering."

"It's too tight." He complained, pulling at the sleeves of the shirt grumpily. "The pants are ok."

It was true, the shirt that was so loose on Kagome fit Inuyasha like a second skin, and the pants that she had to roll up at the bottom fit him perfectly. She was immensely grateful that she had kept them when her mother gave them to her after one of her shopping trips.

"Come here." Kagome said, putting away her cards with an exasperated smile. "If you did any worse of a job brushing out your hair there'd be a whole tree in it."

He glared at her but dutifully turned his back so she could reach his hair.

Miroku snorted from where he was poring over a scroll. "She just wants an excuse to look at your butt."

Inuyasha's back was to her so he missed Kagome's blush as she mouthed "I'm going to kill you!" at Miroku with exaggerated stabbing motions. As he was still reading the scroll, he didn't notice.

Kagome took advantage of the monk's preoccupation and glanced down at Inuyasha's backside. His hair covered most of it but when he had first emerged dressed in the clothes she gave him she had actually walked into a doorframe from being so preoccupied with the way the pants clung to his butt and thighs. Lifting a four hundred pound sword like the Tetsusaiga did have its advantages.

"Hah!" Kagome jerked her gaze up guiltily to meet Miroku's accusing stare. "I TOLD you."

She glared at him, willing him into silence with her eyes. Unfortunately for her, Miroku had been quelling under Sango's glare for seven years and Kagome's just didn't measure up.

"Like what you see Kagome?" He teased.

Kagome curled her hand and beckoned to Miroku. "I've got a whole bunch of sacred energy just begging to be used here, why don't you come a little closer?"

"Thanks but I'm working hard on a cure for a lust spell, see, traditionally the best cure would be to just go with it but since the two people in question are stubborn beyond all reason…"

"Don't push me monk, I will purify your ass."

"I don't think that's the part of his anatomy that needs to be purified Kagome." Inuyasha put in. "I think there's three inches of him that could use a thorough cleansing though."

"THREE INCHES?" Miroku yelled furiously. "There are a great many women in Japan who would beg to differ sir!"

"And just HOW many women would that be?" An all-too familiar battle aura enveloped Miroku from behind as Sango glared down at him.

"… One." He replied meekly.

"You bet your sutra it's just one. And she's not defending your honor." Sango turned on her heel and left the room.

Miroku sighed heavily. "I guess I'm sleeping in the twin's room tonight."

Kagome giggled and took the bandanna off Inuyasha's head. Armed with a large-toothed comb and a hairbrush she set to work cleaning the woodchips out of his hair, humming to herself as she worked. When she finished with the comb and put it down Inuyasha whimpered. She smiled to herself as she started working with the brush and he stopped whining. When she was sure Miroku wasn't looking she reached up and rubbed Inuyasha's ears.

He slumped back, whole body as limp and relaxed as a sleeping puppy, with his head in her lap. His newly brushed shining hair spilled over on to the floor surrounding them. So much of their time was in battle that she savored quiet moments more than any other. The few times they had relaxed before Naraku had still been out there. She had never seen him as completely at ease as he was now, secure in the knowledge that he had a family and was loved.

She was so lost in contemplation, massaging Inuyasha's temples and ears, that she didn't notice Sango return to the room. The complete silence finally got her attention and she looked up to see both Sango and Miroku looking at the two of them with gentle smiles on their faces.

"I… uh… missed a spot!" She pushed Inuyasha back up into a sitting position and started brushing his hair again. He made little happy dog noises as she scratched his scalp with the brush bristles. "Okay I'm almost done." On her last stroke of the brush the hair she had been working the hair turned darker. "Huh?"

She pulled the brush through again and the hair turned even darker. She looked bemusedly at the brush, then back at his hair and stroked again, the hair faded to black. "Oh! New moon."

Inuyasha turned around, normal human ears in place and he met her dark eyes with his own.

"We should go Miroku." Sango whispered, pulling the monk to his feet. "Inuyasha is much more open about his feelings when he's a human. We should let them have tonight."

They crept away quietly, leaving the two humans gazing into each other's eyes.


	12. Chapter 12

Sorry peeps, updates may be slow for a little while, holidays are keeping me busy but I will try to keep 'em comin!

* * *

Chapter 12

"I'm so glad you're back Kagome." Inuyasha whispered and cupped her cheek with his hand, rubbing the roughened pad of his thumb along her cheekbone. "I couldn't bear it when you left."

_Oh boy._ Kagome thought, _why is he so much more intimidating as a full human?_ "I-I wanted to come back too." She couldn't meet his eyes, it felt too strange looking into eyes that were the exact same shape and size as Inuyasha's but the wrong color.

"Kagome…" He brought his other hand to her face and, kneeling above her, brought his lips to hers.

Kagome felt like someone had just replaced all her blood with sake, her head was swimming as lips that were so much softer than she would have ever thought caressed hers. He laced one hand through the hair behind her head and wrapped the other arm around her shoulders, drawing her flush against him.

Inuyasha broke the kiss and held her tightly to his chest, stroking her coal-black hair.

"Woah." She managed to gasp.

A rumbling in his chest told her Inuyasha was chuckling as he kissed the top of her head. "Marry me Kagome."

"Wha-?" She pulled away to look into his serious eyes. "You're kidding right? We just reunited a few days ago! Give me some time!"

"My life was nothing without you." His eyes turned raw with pain. "I don't want to go through that again."

"I… I thought we already agreed on a partnership! Isn't that enough for now?"

"No." He said simply. "You've agreed to a partnership with my demon blood, that's what being mates is. I want to possess you as a human man as well."

"Eep." She scooted back until she ran into the wall. _Why can't he balance his demon and human half to be half this honest as a half-demon! And less hard-headed!_ "Slow down there champ!"

"Why? Don't you want to be with me Kagome?" He crawled forward and placed his hands on either side of her, trapping her between his body and the wall.

_OhgodOhgodOhgod!_ She thought. "Inuyasha…" She said, voice wavering. "You're really going to be embarrassed in the morning."

"But we have tonight…" He murmured, placing his forehead against hers.

"I just… I… I need time." She put her hands against his chest and moved her head into the curve of his neck and shoulder. "It's not that I don't want to be with you-"

"Is there someone else?" If he had had demon blood in his veins at that moment he would have closed off, slipped behind his arrogant mask. But because he was human his expression was plain as day on his face. "Do you have some unresolved… feelings for another man?"

"No! I don't. There was never anyone else." She mumbled, repeating his words to her from when they walked in the woods. "I just… I'm really hesitant to be intimate with you with this demon around. I want to be positive that you want me for me, not because you're under some spell."

The black-haired Inuyasha pulled her against him, falling back into a seated position with her cradled in his lap. "I want YOU Kagome. No demon can change that." He placed a tender kiss on her mouth. "But if you want to wait, we can wait. Just don't leave again, okay?"

"Okay Inuyasha." She twined her fingers in his hair and listened to his heartbeat, adjusting to the feel of his body temperature being the same as her own. "I won't leave you again."

* * *

Kagome woke to an unusual sensation. The bed around her was gradually growing warmer. It took her a moment to realize that it wasn't the bed but the body that cradled hers in the bed. She opened her eyes in time to meet two darkly gold orbs looking at her. She watched in fascination as they lightened to their normal golden hues.

"Morning." Her voice was muffled as she burrowed into his shoulder.

"I'm getting kinda used to hearing that first thing when I wake up." Inuyasha held her tightly. She felt the pressure of his claws on her back and was glad. She knew how to deal with Inuyasha as a half-demon, but Inuyasha as a human was a whole other ballpark.

"I missed you… last night." Kagome yawned, breaking up the words. "You're a little intimidating as a full human."

"I'm the same person Kagome." He held her face and smiled, flashing fang.

"Not exactly. It's a little like when you go full demon, except less extreme and you remember everything afterwards." She cocked an eyebrow at him. "You DO remember everything, right?"

"Of course!" He laughed a little uncomfortably. "I guess I was a little forward huh?"

"Try a LOT forward." She giggled. "It was sort of a little bit nice, but we should definitely look for a middle ground."

Inuyasha tilted her face up to his and lowered his mouth towards hers.

"Nonono!" She leapt back and ran to her backpack.

"I-What? Do you only want to kiss me as a human?" The hurt was painted all over his face and voice.

"Mpm mph uhts ot zat." She gestured with one hand while brushing her teeth furiously with the other. As he made to get up she made "wait" gestures frantically until he lay back down on his side, facing her with an uninterested mask in place.

Kagome ran to the window, slid it open and spat out it, then took a swig from a bottle of blue liquid and swished with it before it to got projectiled out the window as well. Satisfied, she jumped back on the bed and kissed Inuyasha full on the mouth before he had time to even change his expression.

The kiss was mostly innocent, with only the slightest of embellishments on her part. She let his lower lip slide out of her mouth with a triumphant grin.

"Minty fresh right?"

"Uhhh…" Inuyasha looked floored. "Ah… Uhh…"

"The power of Listerine is strong with this one!" Kagome announced, flexing her bicep. "Come on! Fending you off all night made me hungry! Let's get breakfast!" She grabbed Inuyasha's hand and dragged him bodily into the dining room.

"Good morning you two." Miroku said serenely from his seat at the table. "I'm amazed at how quiet you were last night, I expected to hear you even with my ears covered and humming."

"You mean you _hoped_ you would hear us." Kagome accused.

"Hear what?" Inuyasha asked, rolling his shoulders and stretching. "I don't snore… Kagome does talk in her sleep though."

"Oh really? What does she say?" Miroku propped his chin up and smiled benignly.

"Well she says… Uh…" Inuyasha blushed.

"What do I say?" Kagome looked frantic. "Nothing too bad right?"

"Whatever happened to that blushing notebook you had?" Sango asked, pushing her way into the room with a bamboo bucket filled with rice balanced on her stomach.

"We just agreed that I won and left it at that." Kagome smiled and helped herself to a bowl of rice.

"Ye-WAIT! We did not!" Inuyasha denied vehemently.

"Yes we did sweetheart." Kagome took advantage of Inuyasha's momentary speechlessness at her use of the pet name and pushed on. "I would like to try something today."

"Sango, it is time to continue our discussion!" Miroku said excitedly. "FINALLY a couple as adventurous as ourselves!"

Sango hit him with her haraikotsu. "I don't even know how you jumped to that conclusion you pervert but I don't think Kagome was interested in anything sexual."

"How DID you jump to that conclusion?" Kagome gave the monk an exasperated look.

"Sango's gotten too pregnant and and…" Actual tears gathered in Miroku's eyes. "I JUST WANT TO BE LOVED!"

"We love you daddy!" The twins ran into the room and threw themselves bodily at their father.

"Two beautiful maidens to relieve my suffering!"

Sango rolled her eyes. "What were you saying Kagome?"

"I wanted to see if the well was actively working again or if it was just a one-time thing. I'd like to let my family know I'm all right."

"How long are you going to be gone?" Inuyasha growled, arms crossed.

"WE you idiot. I want you to come with me, I know mom and Souta would be happy to see you again. I just wanted to go for a few hours, a night at most, just to check." She gave Inuyasha her very best Bambi eyes.

"You don't have to bat your eyes at me. We can go, but just for one night." Inuyasha acquiesced.

"Thank you!" Kagome threw her arms around him with a squee of delight. "I'll go get dressed!"

As soon as she jumped up and ran out of the room Miroku leaned in close. "So what DID happen last night Inuyasha."

Inuyasha winced as the sound of the haraikotsu cut through the air, followed by a solid thunk.

* * *

Aruji stepped into the stormy gray outside with an unpleasant smile on her face, today she set part of her plan into motion. She would have to wait for the priestess and the half-demon's child, but there were other children in world with powers for her to consume. Children were so pure, hopeful, innocent, and the remarkable children of demons, humans with unusually strong souls and priestesses were perfect demon food. Perfect for her.

Once she had the child of the priestess Kagome and half-demon Inuyasha she would be invincible, until then she would have to find something else to fill her stomach and temporarily quench her thirst for power.

Just a little while longer, no one had enough discipline to resist her spells forever.

* * *

Author's note:

(Sorry PurpleMD! Gotta have some plot in there somewhere, it can't be all fluff!) Thanks again guys! Your devotion makes me feel like a million bucks!

-Az.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Kagome and Inuyasha walked towards the dry well, she had changed into a flowing white kimono that she borrowed from Sango. It was a simple but beautiful ceremonial bridal outfit and Inuyasha was twitching nervously.

"WHY did you wear that thing?"

"You'll see." She giggled and winked at him. "Don't worry Inuyasha, I don't plan on getting married tonight."

"Uh huh." He kept his arms tightly crossed and distance in between them until they reached the well.

Kagome took his clawed hand in her own and stepped carefully over the low wall. "On three?"

Inuyasha nodded. "One…"

"THREE!" She jumped, pulling him over the edge with her.

Immediately the crumbling well bled out of sight and they were falling further and further. Inuyasha wrapped his arm protectively around her waist as they fell and supported her when they landed on the other side of the well.

"This well is the resting place of demon bodies and spirits…" Souta's voice drifted down to them and Kagome covered Inuyasha's mouth with her hand and made the 'shush' gesture. "It is as haunted as the rest of the shrine, more so, at night you can hear and sometimes see demons emerge from the well."

With a muffled giggle she gestured for Inuyasha to jump out. He raised an eyebrow but let his curiousity lead him up and out of the well. Kagome was right behind him, she had to land on the ladder half way up to get the leverage to clear the well wall. The jewel gave her a boost but she couldn't jump like Inuyasha.

As she landed next to the half-demon Souta let out a shriek more befitting a teenaged girl. The group of children in costumes ranging from fairy princesses to demons and characters from popular animes screamed and ran out in a panic.

"Inuyasha!" Souta smiled and grasped him in a manly hug. "It's good to see you!"

"Wow kid, you've gotten taller." Inuyasha gave him a noogie. "What was all that about?"

"It's Halloween!" Kagome exclaimed happily, throwing her arms around Souta, who was dressed like a monk. "We came back for the night, I thought it'd be fun."

Souta grinned evenly. "Heck yeah it will be."

The trio walked out of the well's room to find a group of kids huddled behind a very disapproving Kun-Loon. Her expression changed immediately as she recognized the pair with Souta.

"Kagome! Inuyasha!" She threw her arms around them. "You got married!"

The couple looked at each other and blushed.

"Mom… It's Halloween, I borrowed this from Sango for the night." Kagome explained slowly.

Her mother smiled wider. "Close enough! Oh I love you both so much!" She put kisses on both their cheeks and turned back to the huddled children.

Once the kids saw them all laughing together and established that they weren't demons (hah) from the well, half tried to play off their fear—the boys—and the other half threw themselves at Inuyasha—the girls.

"Awesome costume mister!"

"Look at those ears! I want some!"

"I want to touch them!"

This sent all the girls into a frenzy trying to fondle Inuyasha's ears, one grubby hand after another managed to jump up and snag them, pulling Inuyasha to their level. The more stoic girls looked on with stars in their eyes. They had never seen a man so exotically handsome with long silver hair and golden eyes.

"Hey, do you have a girlfriend?" The oldest of the troop of girls asked. The rest burst into giggles.

"Wha? How OLD are you? Like ten?" Inuyasha straightened and held his head high to keep his ears out of reach.

"Ten and a half!" She replied indignantly, tapping one pink satin clad toe. She was dressed as a princess, complete with holier-than-thou attitude. "You didn't answer my question!"

Inuyasha glanced over at Kagome imploringly and she held up her hands. "… No. I don't have a girlfriend."

"So you'll be my boyfriend then." She smiled a little evilly for her age.

"-I have a mate."

"Oh good lord." Kagome covered her blushing face with her hands as Souta and his mother whooped and jumped in the air.

"It's about time! I've been wanting some grandkids!" Kun-Loon threw her arms around her embarrassed daughter. "I thought you'd be the crazy cat lady if you kept things up the way you've been going!"

"Mom! Jeez. I'd be the crazy dog lady anyway." Kagome looked at Inuyasha out of the corner of her eye as the rest of the children giggled and wandered away, leaving the princess gaping at them.

"Can you only have one mate?" She asked suddenly, looking hopeful again.

"OKAY! Time for bobbing for apples!" Souta exclaimed, steering her away.

"Kids these days." Kun-Loon said with a smile and a shake of her head. "I'm so glad you came back so soon! We were worried." She hugged her daughter tightly.

"Everything has been fine mom." Kagome pulled back and returned her smile. "Miroku and Sango have twins!"

"My goodness! What a handful!"

Inuyasha smiled gently at the thought of his two biggest admirers. "They're pretty spunky, they keep Miroku on his toes."

Kagome's mother's eyes filled with tears as she looked at the half-demon and she hastily wiped them away. "You've grown up so well Inuyasha, I'm so glad that Kagome has someone so handsome for a mate."

The ease with which her mother slipped into demon terminology made Kagome's head spin. "Would you two quit SAYING that?"

Inuyasha looked down at her levelly, grasping her chin in his hand firmly. "You are my mate." It was not a question.

"Grandkidsgrandkidsgrandkids!" Kun-Loon chanted happily, clapping her hands together.

"Damnit! I'm not saying I'm not your… partner. We just don't call it that in my era!"

"Fiancés then?" He asked seriously.

"Usually there's a ring involved for that…" Kagome was grasping at straws now but for some reason could not remember WHY it was important to avoid commitment.

"Eee!" Kun-Loon grabbed her daughter's arm and dragged her to the house. "If that's the only problem then we can easily remedy that!"

Kagome shot a desperate look at Inuyasha who shrugged and followed the pair into the house, where they paused for the briefest moment to kick off their shoes, and up the stairs into Kun-Loon's bedroom. Inuyasha waited in the hall, not wanting to barge into a woman's bedroom uninvited and get "sit"ted for it.

With her daughter seated—albeit forcibly—on the edge of her bed, Kun-Loon rummaged around in a red-lacquered jewelry box until she produced an ancient and worn tiny box. With care that bordered on reverence, she carried it to her daughter and opened it. "This is one of the Higorashi heirlooms, your grandfather entrusted it to me and now I'm giving it to you."

Inside was an old ring made out of a material that Kagome could not identify but that she recognized. It was so worn that whatever had been originally inscribed on it was barely a faded indention on the surface. Despite being old and worse for wear there was something about it that captured her, and when she ran a finger along it it felt warm and welcoming, like an old friend. It was at once the most plain-looking and beautiful ring she had ever seen.

"Inuyasha… look at this." She breathed.

He was standing in front of her in moments and had carefully picked up the ring in his claws. "Hmph." He dismissed but took her hand and slid it on her finger with a look in his eyes that scared Kagome. An emotion that was more than love, more than lust… something soul-deep and as permanent as the ocean.

It stirred something deep within and she felt a powerful warmth responding from her that had nothing to do with the jewel. That scared her even more.

A sniffle broke the spell and both of them looked at Kun-Loon who had a handkerchief and was sobbing noisily. "You two… are so… BEAUTIFUL together!" She wailed and pulled them both into a bear hug, giving Inuyasha a wet sniffly mother's kiss on the cheek. "I-I-I'm so happy!"

"Geez! If yer so happy why're you cryin!" Inuyasha exclaimed, trying to wrestle his way out of the hug half-heartedly.

Kagome shook her head smiling as her mother stepped back and blew her nose into her handkerchief. "Thanks mom, I love it... but it's not an engagement ring, it's just a ring."

"Uh-huh." Kun-Loon agreed smiling.

"No commitment or... or... official anything."

"Of course." Kun-Loon's expression didn't change.

"I mean it. I'm just wearing it because I like it... and it fits." It did fit, it fit so perfectly that it felt like it had been made for her.

"Yeah whatever, let's go." Inuyasha rolled his eyes and strode out of the room.

The women exchanged a glance. "He gets grumpy when he's emotional." Kagome explained.

"I aint emotional!" The responding shout echoed up the stairs.

"And he has excellent hearing." Kagome winced and followed her mate/partner/not fiancé.

They stepped onto the first floor landing in time to hear a woman's voice say "Well hellooo!" In a suggestive tone at who could only be Inuyasha.

"Hey yourself." He responded neutrally.

Three young women, all in various costumes that more closely resembled lingerie than clothing were clustering around the tall confused half-demon. Kagome acknowledged the princess, frog and honey pot respectively.

"Yuka! Eri! Ayumi! I thought you guys were abroad!" She hugged them, quirking an eyebrow at Ayumi's unorthodox costume.

"Hojou was supposed to be Pooh but he's late." The girl said with a sigh.

Ayumi and Hojou had started dating at the end of high school, when it finally registered that Kagome was too preoccupied for a boyfriend. Somehow she had managed to be more distant when she was there all the time than when she had always been "out sick." It was a match made in heaven from date one, when Hojou had brought ginseng for their trip to the fair to keep them both energetic and Ayumi brought vitamin water to keep them hydrated.

"He's such an airhead, he's probably chasing around the wrong honey pot somewhere." Yuka sniggered.

"Hey! I don't make fun of YOUR boyfriend!"

Eri rolled her eyes dramatically. "That's because she doesn't have one to make fun of!"

"You're one to talk! At least I'm _trying_." Yuka wrapped her hand around Inuyasha's arm. "So. Who are you?"

Kagome cleared her throat. "That would be-"

"I'm Kagome's mate." Inuyasha interrupted, taking a step back so Yuka's hand fell to her side as her jaw fell to the floor.

"WOULD YOU QUIT SAYING THAT! SI-" Kagome raised her hand and was halfway through the dreaded word before realizing that "sit"ting Inuyasha in front of her friends would raise more questions than answers. "Si-Si-Siiiiilence!" She supplied hastily.

Her friends looked at each other and shrugged, they were used to Kagome's eccentric behavior.

"… Back to more interesting matters…" Eri turned on Inuyasha. "What do you mean "mate"?"

"I mean-"

"HE'S REALLY taking his costume seriously!" Kagome talked loudly over him. "Inuyasha is dressed as a hanyou for Halloween!"

"Hanyou?" Yuka asked, turning back to the male in question. "Well that's a first." She squinted up at him. "Hey you seem kind of familiar…"

"Yeah!" Eri chimed in. "I've definitely seen you somewhere before…"

"Your picture!" Ayumi chimed happily. "He's in that picture you always keep around! He's even wearing the same costume!"

Kagome thought quickly, she was used to flying by the seat of her pants when it came to making excuses, gramps had made it a necessary skill. "Well… Eh… That's because… Inuyasha is… in… the circus!" She finished triumphantly. "He's part of a travelling circus!"

"I thought you said that that picture was taken at a costume party?"

"I thought you said a festival?"

"His circus troupe was performing in costume AT a festival!" Kagome continued desperately.

Silence followed this declaration.

"Wait… Is this the two-timer?" Eri asked suddenly, skewering Inuyasha with a glare.

"Huh? Two-timer?" He shot an accusing look at Kagome over the frog-eyed headband Eri was wearing.

"Ah… well… you see… I wasn't sick all that time in junior high." Kagome hung her head in shame to cover her expression as she pieced together a passable lie. "I actually kept trying to join the circus whenever they came to Tokyo." She looked pleadingly into her friend's eyes in turn. "It was a silly dream, I know. Inuyasha had a partner for his act but she wasn't very reliable so I would fill in, but since she was his first partner then whenever she WAS around Inuyasha would choose her." She gave Inuyasha a look with real frustration in it. "But in the end… I guess… he chose me." She finished quietly as it registered to her that Inuyasha had indeed chosen her.

"Don't blame me you idiot, YOU were the one who left for FIVE years!" Inuyasha growled.

"I TOLD you I had to finish school!" She yelled back, momentarily forgetting that her friends were all staring at them.

"You waited for her to finish school?" Ayumi asked, stars dancing in her eyes as she gazed at Inuyasha adoringly. "That is SO romantic."

"Uh huh. And what about your other "partner" Mr. Two-timer?" Eri jabbed a finger in his chest.

"She's dead." He said flatly.

"Ohmygosh! Did she die during your act?" Ayumi asked, hand over her honey pot.

"It's dangerous being in a circus!" Kagome said quickly.

"All right then." Eri said, looking a little wilted after Inuyasha's last statement. "Why don't you show us a little part of your act?"

Kagome stared at her, desperately racking her brain for some kind of an excuse. "Uh… uh…" Suddenly a brilliant solution hit her. "Ok, but we have to go outside for it."

Once they were all rallied outside—including the children that were taking the haunted tour. Souta had shouted that a "circus act" was about to happen and it drew them like addicts to crack. Kagome got into her role as ring leader while Inuyasha leaned against the outside wall with his arms crossed.

"Ladies and geeentlemen!" Kagome shouted, waving her arms theatrically. "What you are about to witness is the most amazing, most astounding, one and only… HUMANish GRASSHOPPER!"

Inuyasha fell over.

* * *

Author's inane babble:

I'M ALIVE! For realsies, just went out of state for awhile. I'm going to try to update at least once a week from here on out, but I'm aiming for twice a week. I'm really like a text-book example of ADHD (aka: overgrown child with itty bitty attention span) so every now and then I have to take a minute and remember how to focus. I'm trying to wrap up my other story so I can work on this one more-that one is more of a short and this is turning into something with a plot-and I really really want to write a fruits basket story. But giving this story proper attention and satisfactory plot progression is priority numero uno, top o' the list, exhibit A, shiniest object, etc.

So, in the immortal words of that master story teller and wordsmith (no not Homer, Salman Rushdie or Bill Watterson) Arnold Schwarzenegger (and yes, I definitely googled how to spell that).

"I'll be back."

-Az.


	14. Chapter 14

In penance for pulling another vanishing act-sorry guys, work comes first -_- I give you... A **sex** scene! That's right ladies and gentlemen, there is sex in this chapter, if you have too delicate of a countenance to handle it then avert your eyes!

* * *

Chapter 14

"What the-?" Inuyasha righted himself in a flash and was in Kagome's face before she could blink. "Grasshopper?"

"It's super simple, just jump to the roof of the house, people can't do that here." She said through her fixed smile.

Inuyasha gave her a very pointed glare. "You owe me big time."

Without further ado he easily jumped on top of the two story house, perched for a moment and then freefell backwards, twisting at the last second to land on his feet.

The kids erupted into applause, the princess was looking at him like he was the love child of Justin Timberlake and the Jonas brothers and Kagome's friends were cheering with the rest.

Eri was still smiling and clapping when she shouted, "Hey Kagome, what do you do in the act?"

A very pointy wicked grin spread across Inuyasha's face as he looked at his not-fiancé. "Yeah Kagome, what do you do?"

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh you know, A little bit of this and a little bit of that."

"You're not getting out of it that easily." Yuka made 'go on' gestures at her friend. "Show us!"

Scenting blood in the water the children started chanting "Show us! Show us!" While Kagome tried to think of a way out of the situation.

It occurred to her that she was going to be spending the majority of her time in the feudal era and therefore it didn't really matter what she did. And the scenario she had set up for herself as a circus worker meant that she could do something abnormal and get away with it.

She smiled and nodded to her avid audience, gathered her skirts in one hand and jumped to the roof of the first story before jumping to the top of the house. After all, she was in good shape, but she didn't have demon blood in her.

Without warning she let herself fall off the house.

Everyone on the ground screamed and Inuyasha, who hadn't been paying attention, suddenly realized that the woman he cared about was about to flatten him.

"Eep." He got out before swinging her around and setting her back on her feet, golden eyes alight with the panic which didn't have time to set in before. "That was a little reckless don't you think?"

"I knew you'd catch me so I decided to take the easy way down." She smiled at him and patted his head. "Good boy!"

"This all seems very familiar…" Inuyasha continued glaring at Kagome until Eri cleared her throat.

"Oh!" Ayumi clapped excitedly. "I KNEW I'd seen you before! You were in the play!"

"Huh?" Kagome and Inuyasha looked at her.

"The cultural festival! Was all that special effects stuff just part of your act?"

Kagome remembered that terrible day, it was one of the most stressful of her life. She had accidently brought dehydrated demons to school thinking that they were just normal food and they had had to clean up the disaster. Hojou was playing a prince to her princess and Inuyasha had broken through the roof in a fury. Luckily before he had decapitated the boy a melon demon had broken through the stage and he had slain it instead—destroying half the stage with his wind scar.

"Yes…" Kagome hung her head. "I wanted you guys to see part of the act so badly."

Three pairs of arms encircled her. "We've always been proud of you Kagome!" Ayumi exclaimed. "And everyone thought the play was the best part of the festival!"

"Thanks guys!" Kagome hugged them back. "So what did you think?"

"Of the act?" Eri asked then continued with Kagome's nod. "Seems a little dangerous... but I was impressed."

"Can we go somewhere else?" Inuyasha was tugging frantically on Kagome's sleeve like a frightened child. "Let's go now ok?"

Kagome glanced around and saw the princess with a hanyou fetish advancing with purpose. Inuyasha looked like he would rather fight off a demon horde then deal with the pre-teen in pink satin.

"Hey we were going to go out dancing, you should come with us!" Ayumi exclaimed.

"Well kids aren't allowed in most clubs or bars…" Kagome began thoughtfully.

"That's fine! Great! I'd rather see a hundred weapons than be here!" Inuyasha started toward the stairs, only to be intercepted by the princess.

With sparkles trailing from her eyes she threw herself bodily at him, which he countered by jumping to the top of the shrine and then down the stairs in two bounds.

"Wow… His stage name is really accurate. He is just like a grasshopper." Eri commented. "Come to think of it I don't think you ever told us his real name…"

Kagome smiled at the back of the casually posed half-demon at the base of the steps clearly pretending he hadn't just run from a human girl in a princess costume.

"Inuyasha, his name is Inuyasha."

"Kagome, don't you think Inuyasha should wear shoes or something? I don't think they allow bare feet in the club." Yuka frowned at her friend.

"Hmm… good point… but he hates shoes. Uh, because they, uh, hinder his hopping abilities!" Kagome smiled, looking a little worse for wear from keeping up the complicated lie. An idea struck and she rummaged in her sleeves. "Damnit, do any of you guys have a sharpie?"

"I do!" Ayumi pulled a large black marker from her honey pot. "What? It's in case my 'hunny' starts wearing off!"

"Heaven forbid." Yuka said, giggling as Kagome gratefully accepted the marker.

It took them much longer than Inuyasha to get down the full staircase and when they did the irritated 'grasshopper' was sitting on the low wall, bouncing his leg in a gesture that was all too familiar to Kagome. She couldn't stop the heartfelt smile that tugged on her lips as she leaned down and kissed the top of his head. The smell of his hair made the world stop as he touched his forehead to her shoulder with a sigh.

A squeal behind them broke them apart as they looked up to see Kagome's friends watching them with sparkly eyes and smiles on their faces.

"You two… you're so… so cute!" Ayumi exclaimed as she pulled a tissue to blow her nose with from her honey pot. "It's no wonder that you couldn't keep apart! It's so romantic!"

Kagome laughed uncomfortably as she knelt to the ground in front of Inuyasha, careful to keep her white kimono from touching the pavement.

"So does that blush count as a point for me?" A rumbly voice asked in her ear.

She subtly shook her head and drew a line across his foot. He jerked it out of her grasp with an unmanly squeak.

"That tickles!"

"Stop being a chicken." She pulled his foot back to her and drew another line across it, making two lines that parted from in between his toes and went to the sides of his feet, then one more around the back of the heel. "Most places here don't let you in without shoes Inuyasha."

"But I hate shoe-… oh." He examined his feet where, in the dark, it looked like he was wearing sandals. "I'm impressed Kagome, that's pretty clever of you!"

She rolled her eyes and turned to hand the marker back to Ayumi. "Wait a minute! You guys multiplied!"

Hojou had finally caught up, sandy-colored bear head held under one arm and a small red t-shirt the only other part of his costume, besides the bear suit. His face broke into a broad smile when he saw Kagome a smile that conveyed the deep affection that builds after almost a decade of friendship.

"Hey Kagome! I thought your mom said you were abroad?" He asked while giving her a one-armed bear hug.

A deep growl cut through the conversation like a knife and Kagome pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "That was the plan."

"Hojou! Kagome is part of a travelling circus!" Ayumi exclaimed excitedly. "She and Inuyasha have an act together, have you been introduced to Inuyasha yet?" She asked, oblivious to the battle aura that surrounded the half-demon.

Kagome flicked his nose and muttered. "Bad dog." Under her breath, which caused his ears to droop and eyes to look as if the world had just imploded. "Sorry! Sorry! Good dog! Good dog!" She rubbed his head in penance for saying the absolute worst thing you could ever say to a dog.

"I'm not your dog!" Inuyasha growled, perky ears giving away his delight at being praised.

"Hojou, this is Inuyasha." Kagome turned and smiled to the bear-boy who tried to shake hands with the dog-boy.

"Hey! I have met you before! You attacked me at the cultural festival when you thought I was flirting with Kagome!"

Kagome winced, Hojou always seemed like such an air-head that his moments of insight still took her completely off guard.

"Yeah what of it?" Inuyasha growled back, golden eyes still narrowed suspiciously.

Kagome whapped him upside the head. "Be nice."

"But… But you _embraced_ him." He whined, eyes alight with the subtle red glow that signaled the impending onset of his demon blood.

"That is an acceptable greeting here; it doesn't mean that I am in love with him you idiot." She hissed back, her actions belying her tone as she took his hand lovingly in her own to help him control his demonic powers. "You are the only person I think of romantically." She blushed but the statement had the intended effect of snapping him back in control of his body.

"Hey are you guys coming?" Hojou called back to them. The rest of the group had already walked to the end of the block without waiting for them.

"-I can't believe how grown up Souta has gotten!" Eri was saying as they caught up.

"Yeah, he definitely is pretty cute, is he legal yet?" Yuka giggled.

"Oh I do NOT like where this conversation is going." Kagome cut in, glaring at both of her friends.

"So… Inuyasha… do you have any brothers?" Yuka asked innocently, as though pedophilic intentions had never been brought up.

"Huh? Yeah I guess. If you can call him a brother." Inuyasha shrugged.

"Have you met him Kagome?" Eri whispered just loud enough for Yuka to eavesdrop—not knowing that Inuyasha was part dog and could hear every word. "Is he handsome?"

Kagome raised her eyebrows as high as they would go, nodding almost imperceptibly in the universal expression of omfg-you-have-no-idea.

"More handsome than Inuyasha?" Yuka asked disbelievingly.

"Oh come on guys, no one could ever be more handsome or brave or strong as Inuyasha!" Kagome replied loudly as the male in question whipped around, claws raised menacingly. "I could never ask for a more attractive boyfriend!" She reached up to rub his ears and in the process flattened them completely against his skull.

"_His older brother is the most beautiful man I've ever met_." She murmured so quickly that it took them a moment to figure out what she had said. "Oh I'm sorry baby, did I hurt your earsies?"

Yuka and Eri burst into giggles and both of them spaced out, imagining the older brother of the exotically handsome man walking beside them.

Yuka pictured him with Inuyasha's hair color and eyes but with higher cheekbones and an almost feminine mouth. He was dressed in an Armani suit with a dozen roses and saying in a sexy accent, "Do you want to take a trip to Paris this weekend Love?"

Eri pictured him as a rugged muscular man with narrow golden eyes and short silver hair. He was dressed in a pair of form fitting jeans and heavy boots (and nothing else) saying in a deep masculine voice, "I just finished building a cabin for you baby… let's spend some quality time there."

_I wonder what Sesshomaru is up to._ Kagome wondered idly, ignoring her friends' drool.

* * *

Pale blue eyes widened as a young woman arched her back and moaned, hands gripping the bedding on either side of her desperately. Silver hair as fine as silk brushed over her body as the strong arm her head lay on tensed.

"Beloved I beg of y-Ah!" Her sentence broke off in a cry to the ceiling as her breast was lavished by the warm tongue of the dog demon warlord.

"Do you admit that you have been defeated?" His deep voice with the hint of a growl asked.

She looked up into the narrowed golden eyes above her. "Never."

His body surged forward, forcing her into another arch that slammed her torso into his above her. He was as yielding as a mountain and she fell back against the bed gasping. He rested inside her, as deep as her body would allow, pressed unrelentingly against her throbbing core. The longer he stayed motionless the more her body ached, the knowledge of his being as deep in hers as he could be coupled with the sensation of being filled brought her so close to climax that her hips traitorously rocked against him.

He withdrew torturously slowly, knowing that the slightest pressure up or down would send her hurtling over the edge.

"My lord! Your cruelty knows no bounds!" She struggled to move her body against the bindings that kept her in place.

"Admit defeat."

She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood and shook her head slowly. He dipped to catch the trail of crimson, tongue whispering over her lips without accepting their parted invitation to enter her mouth.

He bit her shoulder as a dominant animal would and rocked inside her once again. His teeth bruised her flesh and she cried out in a mixture of pleasure and pain.

"I don't even know… what we were arguing about… anymore!" She managed to say in spite of her ragged breathing.

He pulled away to look at her, a ruthless smile of triumph gracing his beautiful features as he pulled her up, snapping the bindings that held her arms.

"Then you have been defeated." His left arm wrapped around her hips as she wound her legs around his waist, moaning as he began a steady rhythm of thrusting up into her body. She tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled his head back viciously to claim his mouth with her own.

As her body was swept away in the devastating wave of her orgasm he allowed himself his own release, shuddering from the hours of sexual torture that had the double edge of tormenting himself in addition to her. A deep groan slipped past his composure as her inner walls clenched around him and she took control; pushing him into her body over and over until his climax was complete and she allowed her last wave of pleasure take over her senses.

_Mine._ He thought as they fell to the bed together, limbs so entwined he couldn't tell where he stopped and she began.

"Yours." She panted exhaustedly.

* * *

Author's ramble:

Awww Lord Sesshy McFluffikens got himself a lady friend. Yes you will eventually find out who she is but I'm thinking of doing their history as a different fanfic. Until next time!

Az.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"What the hell IS this?" Inuyasha yelled.

Lights and music filled the crowded room, black lights and strobe lights made Inuyasha's hair look like it was glowing and the crowd look like it was moving in slow motion. The club looked even stranger than normal because everyone in it was in costume. Demons, animals, witches, vampires, and anime characters crowded the room, everyone gyrating to the electronic music.

Inuyasha's sensitive nose twitched as he unwillingly took in all the smells, alcohol predominated as it was the strongest scent but underneath was sweat, vomit, filth and sex. Even Kagome's scent was overwhelmed and he wrapped his arms around her, burying his nose in the curve of her neck.

"I don't like it." He mumbled into her skin.

"IT'S JUST FOR A LITTLE WHILE!" She yelled over her shoulder, barely loud enough to be heard over the music.

"DO YOU WANT A DRINK KAGOME?" Eri shouted.

"NO THANKS!"

Eri squeezed through the crowd as the rest of the group found a table. By the time they were seated she had returned with a tray with six shot glasses on it. She placed one of them in front of each person and they all raised their glasses. Eri yelled a toast that no one could hear and they drank with the exception of Kagome who put her glass back on the table.

She didn't want to yell her reasons for not drinking. She didn't like being drunk in an unfamiliar place surrounded by strangers, years of fighting off thugs had taught her that the bad guy doesn't always have a mustache and eye patch. She didn't have a problem sharing sake with her dearest friends in celebration of being reunited with her sweetheart but drinking for the heck of it did not appeal to her.

Kagome noticed that Inuyasha also didn't drink his. When she gave him a sideways glance he gave her a little smile. It was so rare that he really smiled that her breath caught. His expression became flat again as Hojou leaned over to Kagome's ear.

"SO, THE CIRCUS?" He yelled with a grin. "I'M SORRY I MISSED YOUR ACT!"

"OUR ACT." Inuyasha corrected.

Hojou shrugged with another smile. "SO ARE YOU THE GUY THAT KAGOME DITCHED ME FOR IN MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL?"

_Shit._ Kagome thought. _How do I dodge this bullet?_

"I'M THE ONLY GUY WHO'S EVER GOING TO BE WITH KAGOME. TOUCH HER AND I'LL KILL YOU."

Hojou's smile widened. "AND WHAT IF I ALREADY HAVE?"

_Hojou what the fuck!_ Kagome stared at the boy in question blankly. _We kissed once at a party and you were a tongue-pusher!_

Hojou was really bewildered her, he had always been such sweet-natured nice guy. Clearly he had some baggage and Ayumi was going to be the one suffering for it if he didn't let it go.

Kagome stood abruptly as Inuyasha's hand gripped the Tetsusaiga with a purpose. She grabbed the hand and hauled him to his feet, dragging him to the dance floor. Once there she turned and put his hands on her waist and her arms around his neck. She started swaying with the music but Inuyasha was completely rigid.

When she gathered the courage to look at his face the fury in his molten eyes made her shrink away. He looked angrier than she had ever seen him, and he wasn't really known for having a mild temperament. With the ease that came from years of wielding a sword with the weight of a truck he pulled her against his body and up to his face so her feet were off the ground.

"WHAT. THE. FUCK." He ground out between his teeth.

Her indomitable fighting spirit combined with a healthy dose of her own short temper gave her the courage she needed to glare right back. The reason why she left was still burned into her heart, Inuyasha watching a soul collector when he was about to kiss her.

"DO YOU REALLY WANT TO GET INTO THE FAITHFUL ARGUMENT HERE?" She yelled back.

Inuyasha looked like she had just slapped him. His mouth opened and closed a few times without making any sounds.

"LATER. I PROMISE." She wiggled to let him know that he was still holding her off the ground and he lowered her slowly. "DANCE."

Kagome started rocking again while he looked down at her, still unmoving. She rolled her eyes and turned with her back to him, dancing in time with the music. His hands tightened on her hips as he tried to keep her body from making contact with his.

Kagome looked over his shoulder and was perplexed to see sweat and a panicky expression on his face. It struck her—and she felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner—that people in the feudal era did not dance like this. When she tried to imagine what Inuyasha must be thinking she started blushing. Inuyasha got upset when Miroku grasped her hand and holding her hand himself was not a regular part of their interactions. Public displays of affection in general were rare and usually only involved an embrace of relief when one or the other of them was saved from a dangerous situation. She was still surprised at herself for kissing him earlier just to prove that her only hold up had been morning breath.

She hesitantly pushed back against him and her suspicions were confirmed. _He's either holding the Tetsusaiga in front of his body or… wow._ She thought. _I guess demonic blood doesn't just make you stronger and taller, lucky me!_ The last thought made her giggle and blush at the same time

"Kagome are you _trying_ to kill me?" He growled in her ear.

Her mind raced to try to find a graceful way out of the situation. They might have been able to sneak out but if any drunk girls spotted Inuyasha in his current predicament he'd be mobbed. She recalled how she had dealt with the same situation before and smiled encouragingly to Inuyasha.

"BRACE YOURSELF!" She gathered the energy of the sacred jewel and pushed out. The shock cured the problem but with the unexpected side-effect of purifying the whole club. Dancers jumped apart everywhere and a girl next to them shrieked when she found herself dressed in lingerie in public.

Before more panic could ensue Kagome took Inuyasha's hand and steered them both outside.

"That was… ugh! Why would you WANT to go there?" Inuyasha looked at the bottom of his barefoot to find it completely blackened and sticky.

"Well it can be fun." Kagome crossed her arms and tried not to laugh as Inuyasha started rubbing the soles of his feet against a nearby decorative tree.

He shot a look over his shoulder that should have killed her on the spot. "Hilarious."

"Oh boy." She sighed heavily. "This is going to be painless." She started walking back toward the metro station as Inuyasha had handled public transportation surprisingly well.

Inuyasha's clawed hand grabbed her arm and swung her roughly onto his back. "There's no way I'm going on that moving metal carriage thing again. It smelled like dirt and old people."

Well, she'd thought he'd handled it well.

As they spider-manned from rooftop to rooftop Kagome settled in against Inuyasha's back. His hair was surprisingly soft and made an excellent pillow, she burrowed underneath it so she could put her face against his neck. His smell still sent a zing of excitement through her body, it was a little like sticking her tongue on a battery… except nice.

Suddenly they were falling fast and she gripped his broad shoulders to stay in place.

"Woah! That WAS way faster than the metro!" She said, but when she unburied herself from his hair she saw that they weren't at the shrine.

She had only moments to react before Inuyasha dropped her, punched some teenager in the face and jumped into the river.

"What the-?" She looked down at the kid who was unconscious, into the river where Inuyasha hadn't resurfaced, and back at the kid. "I'm so confused."

Moments later the kid was still not stirring and Inuyasha popped out of the river a ways downstream with a bag that he held carefully above the water as he did the one-armed doggy paddle back to the bank.

"Inuyasha!" She ran to him and dropped to her knees on the riverbank. "What were you thinking?"

Without responding he shredded the bag—which she saw was actually a pillowcase—with a sweep of his claws and carefully pulled something furry out of it. Once free of the bag she could see that it was a small dog. As it draped limply from Inuyasha's hands he looked at her pleadingly.

"Is there something you can do?"

"Oh honey…" Kagome's heart plummeted as she looked at the unmoving creature, then back into Inuyasha's sad golden eyes. "Give him to me."

"Her." Inuyasha said quietly

Kagome placed her fingers around the dog's neck and felt the faint fluttering of a pulse but no breathing. She rocked back on her heels and tried to think, she was trained in people medicine but animals were a whole different matter, she wasn't sure if CPR would work without breaking some ribs. She racked her brain for some miracle solution while Inuyasha sat motionless watching her.

"Baby I don't-" she began but broke off as she remembered the miracle cure that she had seen over and over hundreds of times in the past. She'd even seen it bring the long dead back to life.

The jewel. Its energy was literally from souls, and _what are souls if not life in its purest form?_ She thought excitedly, she had to move quickly though, if the little dog's heart stopped beating she wasn't sure that she would be able to bring it back without literally placing the jewel inside it.

"Scoot back." She ordered Inuyasha, she didn't want to be distracted worrying about him getting shocked. She slipped her hand over the puppy's chest and very gently pushed with the jewel.

Water streamed from its nose and mouth as the dog started coughing and sneezing. It raised its small brown head and licked her hand weakly.

"I think she'll be ok now." Kagome said shakily, using the jewel twice in such a short amount of time was draining and both times she had to be extremely controlled.

When she looked up at Inuyasha with a tired smile she was surprised to find her mouth covered by something warm and gentle. Inuyasha cupped her head and kissed her deeply, it wasn't a kiss about passion or sex, it was love. There was no awkwardness, no uncertainty, it was as natural as breathing. She remembered something that she hadn't realized she'd forgotten; although she got upset and frustrated and furious with the male holding her, she was at her core undeniably and irrevocably in love with him for life. She also knew that she would never be able to find the resolve to leave him again.

"Thank you." He murmured against her mouth and kissed her again gently.

The other words that both of them were shouting with their whole beings hung heavily in the night air.

_I love you._

* * *

A creak on the floorboards woke Miroku up with a start. He'd always been a light sleeper but with Sango pregnant it was hard to fall asleep at all. As quietly as he could he slipped on a white kimono and picked up a small stack of sacred sutras. He was afraid to use the Shakujou because of the noise it made no matter how sneaky he tried to be.

He felt rather than heard Sango wake up and placed a finger over her lips. She took the hand and placed it over her heart. Because they were attacked so much they had agreed on a few touched signs that both could recognize in the dark. By putting his hand over her heart Sango was telling him _protect my heart_ which he understood to mean _protect my family_. Both of them had lost so much there was nothing more dear to their hearts than their family.

Miroku raised her hand to his face so she could feel him nod and placed a quick kiss on her forehead before creeping out of the room to check on the twins. He knew Sango would be armed and in their doorway, watching his back.

The twin's door was open, which it hadn't been when he put them to bed. He raised a sutra as he carefully peered around the doorway and flung it in the room. Halfway inside it imploded in a small green flame.

"Shh, you'll wake them." Came a voice silky enough to have come from a spider.

Miroku didn't like spiders, especially spiders that talked, especially spiders that talked AND had enormous demonic auras.

"GET DOWN!" He yelled, knowing both girls would get into the hidden crawlspace he had designed in all the bedrooms when they were building the house.

To buy them time he threw the rest of the sutras at the demon and this time she couldn't block them all. A hard object hit the ground near Miroku with the characteristic chime of his Shakujou. He dove and rolled, grabbing it in one hand and checking down the dimly lit hall to make sure Sango wasn't in it. That confirmed he went back to the business of the demon.

"Daaaaddy!" Came a cry from the room.

Some of the sutras that hadn't hit the demon were on the ground and Miroku slammed the end of his Shakujou onto the floor, infusing them with energy so that they glowed faintly. In the pale light he saw something that made his heart skip a beat.

The demon was in the form of a beautiful woman but this didn't make Miroku pause as she had overlong fingers which were currently grasping Omi's ankle. He struck her as hard as he could and she shrieked but did not let go of Omi.

"Release my daughter!" He bellowed as he swung again.

"You can keep the other child, this one is mine." She replied coolly, sweeping Omi into her arms and forcing Miroku backwards off his feet by stabbing the elongated fingers of her free hand into his shoulder.

"Omi!" He screamed, crawling to his feet in the hall and chasing after them, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.

"Sleep." The demon ordered Omi, whose head fell back limply immediately.

The demon tossed her carelessly into a hovering net with three other smaller motionless children. The net drifted upwards of its own accord and the demon turned to face Miroku.

"I have heard of your power monk, though it is greatly diminished without the threat of your wind-tunnel." Smiling white teeth gleamed in the shadow of her face. "Still you have birthed a child of great spiritual energy. I will enjoy consuming her soul."

"Who are you? Why do you want my daughter!" Miroku pointed his staff towards the floating net and summoned a barrier around it, stopping its retreat.

"I am the demon Aruji, I desire no more than power, which children of strong spirit have in concentrated amounts. Do not fear monk, the girl will not suffer greatly."

"If you return her now then neither will you!" Miroku exclaimed.

A whirring noise cut through the air, a very familiar sound that Miroku had not heard since Sango got pregnant again.

"Sango! No!" He felt like he was moving in tar as he turned to see the heavy Hiraikotsu cutting through the air towards the demon.

The weapon was massive and made of demon bones, it required an enormous amount of strength to wield and he and Sango had agreed that it was too dangerous to use while she was pregnant. If throwing it wasn't dangerous enough, catching it took more strength and was heavy enough to throw her weight backwards every time.

Miroku had a split second to choose, a second which tore his heart apart as the Hiraikotsu cut through the demon and began its lethal path back to its owner. Praying that it had been enough to kill Aruji, Miroku broke the barrier around the children and threw up one in front of Sango just in time to intercept her weapon.

"Damn you!" Came an echoed hiss from everywhere and nowhere. "For that your child will suffer!"

With a sickened feeling Miroku saw that the net had continued drifting away once released of its barrier and was now out of reach of his power. His heart breaking, he turned from his daughter and ran towards his wife.

Sango was on the ground, staring with blank eyes after her daughter. Tears streamed down her face but Miroku's immediate worry was the puddle of fluid she was collapsed in.

"Sango, my heart, talk to me." Miroku said, voice cracking as he tried to keep his mind focused on the situation he could help with.

Slowly she turned to face him, then with equal awareness she looked down at her lap and the pool of liquid.

"Something broke." She whispered and fell backwards into his arms.


	16. Chapter 16

Hello everyone! Thank you for your reviews they are super awesome to the max! This chapter is unusually long so sit back and enjoy.

XOXO

Az.

* * *

Chapter 16

Inuyasha landed lightly in the courtyard of the shrine. Thankfully all the children had gone home so it was deserted. Kagome was held in his arms like a child so she could hold the puppy and keep an eye on its recovery. It spat up a surprisingly large amount of water on her during the trip so both she and Inuyasha needed a shower.

Kagome's mother and brother looked largely unfazed by both of them coming inside covered in water and holding a wet puppy.

"The poor dear!" Kun-Loon exclaimed, retrieving the still limp dog from Kagome's arms. "Where did you find him?"

"Her." Inuyasha and Kagome said at the same time.

"Some kid tried to drown her!" Inuyasha growled furiously. "I should go back and rip that guy's head off!"

"Ah no you shouldn't honey britches, you should wash your clothes and get a shower." The pet name was odd enough to distract Inuyasha from his tirade.

"You both smell like you need a shower!" Souta said with a significant look at his mother.

"Yes! Yes you do! How about you get your clothes in the wash and I'll give her a nice warm bath in the sink." Kun-Loon smiled so brilliantly and innocently that Kagome was immediately suspicious.

"Oookay." She said, starting up the stairs.

"Kagome dear don't track dirt upstairs, just change in the bathroom, then you can put them straight into the wash."

Kagome shrugged and changed directions. As soon as she was gone Inuyasha switched his attention from her to the puppy, stepping in front of Kun-Loon with a gentle expression on his face and scratched the little dog's head.

"Who's a brave girl? Who's a good girl? You are, that's right! Good girl." He smiled as her tail wagged despite being so tired.

Souta looked at his mother with a surprised expression. He knew that his sister loved Inuyasha with her whole heart but this was the first time he'd seen the gentle side of the half-demon. He and his mother nodded to each other in silent agreement.

"Say Inuyasha, could you get the gentle dish soap from the laundry room? I heard that that was what you're supposed to wash puppies with, Kagome can tell you where to find it." Souta defined casual as he leaned back in his chair.

"Sure." Inuyasha agreed easily, following Kagome down the hall and knocking on the closed door. "Hey Kagome don't get naked yet I need you to get me some dog soap."

Kagome didn't respond as her ears were under the showerhead. She'd stripped quickly and dumped the borrowed kimono into the washer, washing it separately from Inuyasha's clothes to prevent his from bleaching and hers from turning pink.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha knocked again, he wasn't too worried as he could hear the sound of water and Kagome moving underneath it. "Hey I'm coming in! I'm just getting the soap ok! Don't sit me!" He pushed open the sliding door and stepped into the steamy room.

The door slammed shut behind him and there was a distinctive click of a lock sliding into place. Followed by what sounded like a chair being jammed against the door.

"Hey!" Inuyasha tried to open the door, he could have broken it open and busted out but Kagome would probably be mad and make him fix it, which never went well.

The bike incident loomed in Inuyasha's mind as he contemplated the door. That had been a huge "sit" and she had only been using it to find him. He decided not to break it open.

"I want some grandkids! Hop to it!" Kun-Loon's voice came faintly through the door.

"EH?" Inuyasha exclaimed, jumping away from it like he'd been burned.

"Did you say some-?" Kagome asked loudly as she pulled open the glass shower door and instead of an empty room was centimeters from Inuyasha's face.

She froze and Inuyasha's eyes widened as he raised his hands in what felt like slow-motion to ward off the impending doom.

"Nooo! Wait-!"

"Inuyasha you pervert SIT!" She screamed, wrenching the door closed again.

Inuyasha's face slammed into the tiled floor with a loud crack. Kagome was unconcerned as she had "sat" him many a time and the ground was always more damaged than he was.

"WHAT THE HELL? WHY are you in here?" She yelled.

"Mph nuhmph muh phmocked us in here together!" He replied in kind as he pried himself off the cracked tiles.

"What?" Kagome took several deep breaths to calm down.

"Your mom and brother locked us in here together! Your mom says she wants grandkids by the way."

"Ugh! She is SO impatient! Why didn't you break down the freaking door?"

Inuyasha's jaw dropped as he stared at the shower door. "You would have 'sat' me!"

"Yeah well I 'sat' you anyway so it didn't make much of a difference!"

Inuyasha continued looking at the shower stall in disbelief that slowly turned to male interest as he noticed he could see Kagome's silhouette through it. The glass wasn't quite clear but it was designed to disguise rather than hide. He gulped audibly.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked and he realized he had been quiet for too long.

"Yup. I'll just sit here and wait for you to finish… do you think your mom could be the demon?" He asked, only half-joking.

Kagome laughed nervously, still getting over the shock of having Inuyasha's presence forced upon her while she showered. "She certainly seems to be a likely candidate doesn't she? But if we're counting everyone who has tried to get us together lately then we have to include Miroku and Sango on the list. It's almost become a sport 'see who can get Kagome and Inuyasha to have sex first'." She blushed after she said it but she couldn't deny that it had a nice ring to it.

Inuyasha was silent for a long moment. "… Wouldn't be your first anyway."

Kagome stood in stunned silence for about a millisecond before asking in a deadly tone, "EXCUSE me?"

"Hey I heard that bear kid say it Kagome, s'nothing to be ashamed of." But the very calm in Inuyasha's voice suggested that he thought it was something to be very ashamed of.

"You know what? YOU'RE RIGHT!" She exploded while hot angry tears sprung to her eyes. "It wouldn't be anything to be ashamed of! Because you know me! I'm just the type to sleep with someone I don't care about! That sounds EXACTLY like me!"

"What? I never thought you were that kind of person! Are you saying you slept with Koga too now?" Inuyasha let his temper get the better of him and even as he said it he knew he had crossed a line. "I-"

Kagome had flung open the shower door and with tears in her eyes and her battle aura stronger than he had ever seen she swung her hand out flat-palmed to slap him. The same instinct that told him when he had gone too far screamed at him to let it happen, that it would be less painful to let her get her anger out now then later.

Once again, he didn't listen to it. Instead he caught her wrist and pulled her out of the shower stall and into his lap. He clutched her desperately to his chest, stroking her hair and trying to calm her down. "I'm sorry, I never thought you were that kind of person, it's okay." He kissed her crown and kept murmuring nonsensical things into her hair and to his enormous relief she went completely limp except for her hands which held onto his haori as tightly as she was able.

Little shudders ran through her body as tears streamed uncontrollably down her face. The unfairness of it clenched at her stomach. Inuyasha really thought that she would cheat on him when they weren't even dating! But he could chase after Kikyou whenever the urge struck and expected her to be okay with it. "I haven't even… I couldn't… It just always felt wrong." She managed to say around her hiccups.

"I-wha? You mean you never…? At all?" Inuyasha looked dazed.

She glared up at him, grateful that his sleeves had enough material to provide some amount of modesty. "Duh you insensitive jerk! I mean, it's really rare that women in my time still have a hymen; we talked about that in my women's studies class. We're just too active and any trauma there at all will break it, I bet mine broke sometime in the feudal era when I was getting tossed around by demons all the time."

Inuyasha frowned at the mini-lecture, trying to keep up. "Wait. Women don't have a what?"

Kagome freed her arms to gesture as she warmed up to her topic. "A hymen, it's the thin wall of tissue that women have in their vagina. It's the thing that breaks the first time they have sex." Talking objectively about sex wasn't a problem for her; it was just when Inuyasha entered the picture that things got complicated.

"So… you're not a… uh… virgin, but you haven't been with any other men..?"

"Well did Kikyou bleed when you first had sex?"

"Now that you mention it-" Inuyasha cut off as he realized his mistake.

"I KNEW IT!" Kagome leapt to her feet and pointed accusingly at him. "You slept with her and you got mad because Hojou just kissed me!"

"He WHAT?" The anger of someone touching his woman overrode the nudity factor.

"Oh no you don't! You are never EVER allowed to have a jealous fit about anything you THINK I did!" She grabbed a towel from the cabinet and wrapped it around herself. "Break open the door."

"No." Inuyasha threw his arm in front of the door, blocking her exit. "This isn't how I wanted this to go down but we have to talk and you know it."

"Do you really think I want to talk to you right now?" Kagome asked quietly without looking at him.

Despite the lightning bolt he took to the heart Inuyasha pressed on. "Come on Kagome."

She dropped to a low bathing stool and crossed her legs. "Fine. You first Don Juan."

"Don what? Never mind, it's not important. I… I have to tell you something Kagome…"

"Yeah I think we've already had confession time with Inuyasha." Kagome tossed her hair over her shoulder carelessly.

He ignored her snide tone and pressed on. "Kagome… you know I'm… older than you right?"

"Well duh. You were pinned to a tree for fifty years! And I know your demon blood slows down how quickly you age." She shrugged.

"Okay, that makes it easy I guess, I thought it'd be harder to tell you I'm somewhere close to two hundred years old."

There was an audible thunk as Kagome slid off her stool. She recovered with remarkable speed and got back up. "Huh… I guess… I guess you've been with a lot of women then." She said it casually but all the blood had drained from her face.

"Kagome…" Inuyasha kneeled in front of her and took her hand gently.

It reminded her of the first time he'd shown her physical affection. He'd taken her hand and nearly kissed her because… Because she reminded him of Kikyou. Kagome's heart gave a painful lurch as Inuyasha looked at her the same way he had then, except then he had looked _through_ her and now he looked at only her.

"Kagome I can't tell you exactly how old I am, I don't really know, there was a long time that I was living on my own separate from the humans… but I can assure you that I was rejected by both humans and demons. Do you really think there was a woman or demoness willing to soil herself with my body?" He kissed her fingertips. "When you said… what you did the night you left all those years ago…. you just… I… you were right, and you were wrong." Inuyasha stood and clenched his hands on the cloth of his kimono. "I could never choose between you and Kikyou because you're the same person. No, that's not right, I mean, you're the same soul—like you said—but losing Kikyou feels like losing a part of you. And losing you felt like losing all of Kikyou. You're the same and different and… aw hell! I don't know!" He turned his back and shook his head violently. "I can't explain it, it just is."

Kagome watched his hands clench and unclench. "I understand." She whispered. "But you're wrong. I'm not Kikyou, like you said before, I have a different energy. I was not born loving you like she did." She gave him a rueful smile. "I did that all on my own."

"I mean, Kikyou made me realize I even HAD emotions and then you… what did you say?"

"You heard me. I said... I said that I... That I fell... for you." Kagome looked steadily into his eyes. "It started before Kikyou was even recreated and every time I got to know you a little better I fell a little harder."

"Kagome… This may not be the right thing to say-"

"Because you're so good at keeping your foot out of your mouth." She interjected with a slight smile.

Inuyasha smiled back and pulled her to her feet. "Kikyou may have been my first lover, but you were my first and best friend. You never called me a half-demon or half-breed, you accepted me from the beginning."

"After you were done trying to kill me." Kagome corrected.

"You're not making this easy y'know."

"Sorry."

"As I was saying, I wanted to protect you from the beginning-"

"After you were done trying to kill me."

"Damnit woman! Stop interrupting!"

"Sorry."

Inuyasha sighed. "I wanted to protect you because you reminded me of Kikyou, but I cared for you because you cared for me as a living being, not because you felt pity for me."

Kagome put her fingertips over Inuyasha's mouth, shushing him. "It's enough, you don't have to say anymore Inuyasha."

"Be with me Kagome."

She looked into his face, into the golden eyes that she so adored and the ears that she had fallen in love with on sight and realized that she had misled her friends before. Sesshomaru was the most femininely beautiful person she had ever met, but Inuyasha was more masculinely beautiful. He was so handsome that looking at him made her heart ache.

Kagome raised onto her toes and pressed her lips against his. Inuyasha wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back like he was a starving man and she was his banquet.

"Inu-" Kagome managed to moan before he picked her up by the waist to kiss her more thoroughly.

She in turn wrapped her legs around his hips and tangled her fingers in his long hair. Inuyasha slammed her against the bathroom wall, making her breath hitch. Through her Inuyasha-induced haze she recognized that he was careful with her, he could have put her right through the wall or ripped her mouth with his fangs. Despite the passion he put into his kiss he was surprisingly dexterous.

_A little shy with his tongue though, maybe he just needs encouragement._ Kagome thought wickedly and brushed the crease of his mouth with her own, slipping inside when he gasped in surprise. The gasp turned into a groan when she touched his tongue with her own. _Bet Kikyou never did anything like that!_ She thought triumphantly.

Inuyasha's hands slipped from her waist and under her thighs. His fingers brushed her inner thighs and it was her turn to moan again.

"All right Souta, you can let them out now, it sounds like Kagome is still in the shower. What a shame." Kun-Loon's voice drifted through the door.

Reluctantly Inuyasha put her down without breaking the contact of their mouths as a scraping sound signaled the chair being removed. He dropped his hands and stepped back, pulling away from the kiss at the last moment, seconds before the door open.

"It's about time!" Inuyasha exclaimed, walking out the door as though he had been waiting there the whole time.

"And stay out." Kagome said weakly, reaching for a nemaki from the bathroom closet. She shrugged the sleeping robe on and dropped the towel, following him out.

The puppy was standing on shaky legs in the main room with Inuyasha's hands hovering on either side to catch her if she fell. When she saw Kagome enter the room she yipped happily and wagged her tail.

"Hey baby." Kagome cooed and dropped to her knees, holding out her hand to be sniffed.

"Good girl! Doesn't Kagome smell nice?" Inuyasha rubbed the puppy's ears.

"Well at least that's a start!" Kun-Loon had quietly snuck up behind Inuyasha and rubbed his ears in an identical manner.

Kagome raised an eyebrow and tried to contain her smile as a blush spread over his face and he leapt to the top of the sofa to get out of reach, she watched her mother smother a laugh as she went back into the kitchen. "I think my clothes are done in the washer if you want to change out of yours and jump in the shower Inuyasha."

"Huh? Nah, I'm fine."

Kagome gave him a thorough once-over. "If you don't wash the riverwater out of your clothes they're going to get mildewey and gross. And don't you want to wash the smell of club off of you?"

"Ugh." Inuyasha sniffed in the direction of his feet. "That's worse than demon guts."

She laughed. "You're kind of ridiculous you know that." She took his hand and led him to the recently vacated bathroom. "Jeez I forgot to turn off the shower!"

"Doesn't matter, just close the door." Inuyasha didn't wait for her but began untying his haori, slipping it off his shoulders and onto the ground.

Kagome hastily shut the door, glaring at the shameless half-demon. The glare turned into something else as he stripped off his white tunic. The years had been hard on his body, scars were everywhere although they were faint. She could see where Sesshomaru had put his hand through Inuyasha's chest, and where Kanna had thrown the wind scar back at him with her mirror. Too many scars from their countless battles. His skin naturally had a bronze hue to it which made his eyes and hair that much more exotic-looking. The heavy muscles on his back and shoulders flexed as he turned his upper body to look back at her.

"What's up Kagome?"

"N-n-nothing." She sucked in a sharp breath as Inuyasha turned the rest of the way around, showing her his powerful core and even more scars.

"Hokay." He shrugged nonchalantly and turned her around bodily.

"What the heck-?" She turned back around in time to see the door of the shower closing and Inuyasha's red pants on the bathroom floor. "Oh."

With the iron will of a samarai she hung her clothes to dry and put Inuyasha's in the wash without looking at the opaque shower door. She even managed to get toothpaste onto her brush before her eyes-completely of their own accord and with no influence on her part-turned to the shower.

Kagome missed her mouth completely with the toothbrush, getting toothpaste on her cheek as her mind blanked completely. Her eyes, which at this point had developed a will and libido entirely of their own, started at the bottom of the shower door. She could see the outline of defined calves and strong thighs, the curve of his hip and the long line of his body as he leaned on the shower wall, resting his body weight on his outstretched arms.

Parts of her anatomy that were already screaming in frustration from the earlier foreplay reminded her in full force that they were still craving attention. A small whimper escaped her lips and Inuyasha's head snapped up.

"Kagome? Are you okay?"

"Hubbasheemaniman..." She mumbled.

"What?"

"Uhhhh nothing! Nothing! I'm totally hot. Yup, completely fine no need to worry about my triceps." Her brain recognized that some of the words that were foremost in her mind got interjected into her sentence and she blushed. "Okay! Fine! No need for concern on my part!" She vigorously turned her attention to brushing her teeth, rubbing away the toothpaste on her cheek.

"You're weird." Inuyasha's voice came from behind her as she spat out her rinsewater, making her snarf.

She was grateful that she had already snarfed as much as could be snarfed because when she turned around Inuyasha stood behind her with a towel held carelessly at his waist. The upper body she had just glimpsed before was slick with water, making abs hard enough to grate cheese on glisten in the fluorescent lighting.

"Oh dear Buddha." She mumbled, whipping her head back to the sink. "There... uh... should be an... uh... a nemaki hanging in the closet there." She pointed vaguely behind her.

"Thanks."

When she was certain it was safe Kagome turned back around. Inuyasha was wearing a plain white robe and he somehow made it look like the most sexual outfit known to mankind.

_Down girl!_ She told herself.

"Kagome?" Kun-Loon knocked on the door before sliding it open. "Did you want anything to eat?"

"Instant noodles!" Inuyasha piped and Kagome smacked him with a towel.

"Do you EVER stop eating? Jeez. Come on you idiot, we're going to bed." She marched out of the bathroom determinedly.

"Wonderful! Grandchildren!"

"TO SLEEP!"

"Awww."

Kagome grabbed the neck of Inuyasha's robe and dragged him up the stairs behind her. "I don't trust leaving you behind with those two, they'll probably pump you full of Viagra and fertility drugs."

"Viagra?"

"Uhh it's nothing! If they offer you a blue pill don't eat it! It's poisonous!"

Inuyasha cocked his head to the side and looked at her curiously as she led him to her bedroom. "Why would your brother and mother want to poison me?"

"Eh heh, just trust me on this one k?" She closed the door behind them. "Turn around so I can change ok?"

"Uh sure." Inuyasha turned his back. His hearing was so sensitive he heard the bathrobe hit the floor and the whisper of her skin as she pulled cloth from somewhere. His own skin remembered the slickened feel of her wet body in his arms, and despite the shower his skin was still scented with Kagome's. It was maddening to still feel her lips against his and her tongue… "Damnit." He muttured, sitting quickly on the ground.

"Huh? What's up Inuyasha?" Kagome placed her hand on his shoulder and he looked back. She was wearing soft pink pajama pants and a white top similar to the one she had 'sat' him on Miroku over, this one was slightly more modest but not by much.

"Not helping!" Inuyasha jerked his head back around.

Another soft sound told Inuyasha that Kagome had pulled on a shirt. He turned as she was buttoning it from the bottom up. The action was oddly sensual, something as regular as getting dressed took on a whole new light when the person you were in love with was doing it.

_Demon guts, miasma, Kagome's breasts, Sesshomaru, Naraku, Myouga, Kagome's breasts, sit commands, curry, school, Kagome's breasts… _Inuyasha glared at his lap, refusing to be defeated by his own body.

The room went dark as Kagome turned off the light. "Come on you idjit." She took Inuyasha's hand and pulled him into her bed beside her. "Just enjoy the spring mattress for the night."

"Hmph." Inuyasha grouchily acquiesced but still held Kagome against his chest. "You're the one who needs rest stupid, you used too much energy saving the dog and purifying that terrible filthy place."

She giggled tiredly at his description of the dance club. "You have no idea what my limits are you jerk."

"You're trembling woman and you can barely lift your head."

"Is that a challenge? Maybe I should kiss you again just to prove how much spunk I have left."

"Oh yeah?"

Inuyasha's breath quickened as Kagome tilted her face up to the dip between his shoulder and chest. He waited for her soft lips to meet his. And waited. And waited.

Kagome was breathing deep and evenly, hand wrapped around the forelock of silver hair that fell across his torso.

"Ridiculous." Inuyasha whispered with a smile and kissed her forehead. "Sleep well."


	17. Chapter 17

Ok guys, this chapter is a little short. But it's not because I don't love you anymore! Another chapter to come soon, cross my heart.

Az.

* * *

Chapter 17

Kagome woke with a start, it was still dark outside and it took no more than a gentle prod to pull Inuyasha out of his light sleep. Over a hundred years of trusting only himself for protection trained him to get fully rested from dozing rather than truly sleeping. Kagome could count on one hand the number of times she'd seen him sleep deeply without being rendered unconscious by injury.

"What's up?" He asked immediately.

"Something's wrong. We need to go home right now."

"Huh? What are you babbling about?"

Kagome leapt off the bed. "Don't ask questions Inuyasha. Get up we're leaving. NOW."

Inuyasha stood quickly, he'd never seen Kagome so… priestessy, it was a little intimidating and he decided to do what she wanted. She was so professional that he almost wasn't interested as she undressed.

"Stop staring." The reprimand was said with a faint smile as she pulled on her jeans.

They slipped down the stairs and Inuyasha quickly dressed in his usual clothes, Kagome sneaking only occasional glances once his pants were on.

"Ready?" She asked when he'd finished dressing.

"Don't you want shoes?"

"Crap." Kagome frowned, remembering that her shit-kicker boots were in the feudal era. She selected a pair of yellow high-tops by the front door, not the best action shoes, but better than sandals. "Now are you ready?"

"Waiting on you champ."

They pushed open the door and started jogging to the secret well.

"What's the rush?" Inuyasha asked, easily keeping up with her.

"I don't know, but something feels… off."

"Is it… you know, your 'woman's time'?" He nodded at her lower bits.

"You think I'm on edge because of my period?" Kagome looked at him incredulously as she pulled open the shrine door and went down the steps. "Wouldn't you be able to smell it? I've always wondered that."

"Eh, well, yeah, but right _before_ you smell like blood and grumpy you get a little edgy."

"I smell like _grumpy_?"

"Yeah, it's like muddy lemons."

"Huh?"

"Quit wasting time." Inuyasha picked up Kagome and dropped her in the well, jumping right after.

As soon as his feet touched ground Inuyasha was hit by a wave of blood-scented air.

"Kagome-" He leapt out of the well, Kagome hot on his heels.

"I know, I can feel it." The aura that gave everything life was tainted by loss and conflict. "Is it…"

Inuyasha swung her onto his back in response to her unspoken question and ran as if his life depended on it.

_Please let Sango, Miroku and the girls be all right!_ She prayed fervently, hands gripping Inuyasha's shoulders.

The run to the dojo seemed to take a thousand years and with every step the scent of Miroku and Sango's blood became stronger for Inuyasha and the auras more tainted to Kagome.

_NO NO NO NO!_ Kagome screamed over and over in her mind.

"They're fine. They've got to be fine!" Inuyasha took the stairs in two bounds. "MIROKU! SANGO!"

A scream ripped through the air from the house and Inuyasha sprinted inside.

"Inuyasha! Kagome!" Miroku yelled from the main room. "Please! Help me!"

"We're here!" Kagome ripped the door off its hinges in her desperation to get to her friends.

She was greeted by a terrifying sight, Miroku was holding Sango in his arms as she let out a heart-wrenching scream.

"You… you came." Miroku said weakly, letting his head droop onto his chest. "I am… so grateful."

"Inuyasha! Help Miroku with his wounds!" Kagome dropped in front of the prone demon slayer and checked her pulse which was frantic but strong. "How long has she been in labor?"

"Dunno. Took Omi away… Ede's still hiding… just in case." Miroku had to stop every few words and grit his teeth as Inuyasha ripped away the blood-crusted kimono in strips.

"Who took Omi?" Inuyasha growled ferociously and Kagome almost felt sympathy for the kidnapper. Almost.

"Demon. Aruji." The monk managed before letting unconsciousness take him.

"He's lost a lot of blood, I can smell it everywhere." Inuyasha pulled the last fibers out of Miroku's wounds. "At least it was clean, through and through. No Poison or miasma either."

"Thank goodness. Sango looks okay too. I think it's a little early for the child but not premature from what she's told me. Can you hear me Sango?"

"Y-Yes."

"How are you doing?"

"Omi… I need Omi!"

"We'll get her Sango, we promise we'll bring her back. But right now I need you to focus on bringing your child safely into the world ok?"

"Yes." Sango's voice was a little stronger, having a goal helped her focus.

"Good. Where are clean sheets or linens or something?" Kagome looked around the room and saw a stack of clean white cloth. "Great, looks like you were prepared."

"Miroku had piles of sheets in every room when they were expecting the twins." Inuyasha said with a small smile for Sango.

She managed a weak nod.

"Okay, Inuyasha get on her other side, I need to see how far along she is."

"Eh? I still need to help Miroku!"

Kagome snorted and ran into the kitchen, quickly gathered a clay pot and returned to the main room.

"Pack the wounds with this salve." She dropped back to Sango. "Let me see." Sango nodded and let Kagome raise the edge of her kimono. "Jeez! It's crowning!"

"It's _what?_" Inuyasha nearly lost his grip on the pot.

"Focus on what you're doing!"

"Uh right."

"Ok Sango, it looks good, you're doing great. It's not going to be long now, just a few more minutes."

Kagome worked with Sango until the baby's head cleared. Silently she wiped its nose and mouth and gently received as the rest of the body delivered.

"Great job Sango!" She wrapped the squalling child in clean cloth. "Miroku! Are you conscious?"

"It would be difficult to remain unconscious through Inuyasha's gentle ministrations." Miroku groaned and sat up groggily. "What happened?"

"You have a son!"

"I… eh… I what?" Miroku blinked several times. "A son?"

"Yes. That wet-looking smelly thing that Kagome is holding. The one that's wrinkly and loud." Inuyasha narrated blandly.

Miroku fell to his knees as Kagome handed the boy to his mother. Tears streamed down his face as he tenderly held his wife and child. Both parents were laughing and crying, a fact that bewildered Inuyasha.

"They just got a son, what's with all the tears?" He asked Kagome.

She grabbed a fuzzy ear and yanked it down to her mouth. "They just lost a daughter you idiot! And it's not that unusual that people cry after their baby is born, it's a really wonderful thing." She smiled and sighed. "I want kids someday."

"Puppies?" Inuyasha asked hesitantly.

"Huh? Why would I have pup-oh." She looked at the ear she was holding and blushed. "Ohhhh…"

Inuyasha tugged back. "Can I have my ear back now?"

"… No." Kagome wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "We'll talk about it after we get Omi back, ok?"

Inuyasha tilted her face up and Kagome touched her forehead against his. "We have to rescue Omi before it's too late."

"Yes but it's going to be a too long before Sango or Miroku are ready to go on any trips."

To Inuyasha's confusion Kagome actually smiled as she looked at him. "Just you and me then? Like old times."

He struggled somewhere between a chuckle and a sigh. "Someone has to stay with them Kagome, I won't leave them without protection, what if this Aruji person comes back for Ede? I'll have to go alone."

Kagome head butted Inuyasha's forehead.

"OW!"

"You dense stubborn frustrating idiotic male!"

"It's not like I have much of a choice ya know!"

"Please. Please Leave us and go for Omi." Sango begged, eyes squeezed shut and lips pressed to her son's temple.

"I'm trying!"

"Ya aint going!"

"Hey everyone! I'm baaaack!" A cracked voice announced from the courtyard. "I can hear you talking inside! Pew does it ever stink out here!"

"Who the heck is that?" Kagome pulled aside the broken door to peer outside.

An awkward youth with limbs too long for the rest of his body and puffy red hair stood in the entryway.

"It can't be… Shippou?" She ran outside and hugged the demon whose head just barely brushed her shoulder. "You've gotten so big!"

"K-K-K-Kagome?" The stunned fox stammered.

"Still stuttering hmm?" Kagome teased. "You've gotten so cute! I bet you're still a ladies' man huh?"

"I leave a string of broken hearts wherever I go." Shippou said with genuine remorse, recovering quickly from the shock of seeing her. "It's a curse…" He paused and sniffed the air hesitantly. "Why does everything smell like gross and demon around here? Miroku did you start having a woman's time or something? Your blood is EVERYWHERE."

"We will name him after your father Sango." Miroku said, ignoring the fox demon completely.

"Are you sure? We could name him after your father Miroku." Sango smiled conspiratorially up at Miroku.

"Yeah, what was your dad's name Miroku?" Inuyasha asked, enjoying watching the monk fidget.

"… I don't want to talk about it. We're naming him after your father."

"It was Sukebei." Shippou whispered loudly to Kagome and Inuyasha.

Kagome smothered a giggle. "It was NOT!"

"Was too. Asked Hachi myself."

"And he said that he _was_ a lecher, not that his _name_ was Lecher." Miroku ground out through his teeth.

"My son, Mizu." Sango sighed, tucking the baby's wrappings under its chin. "Now. Shippou is here to protect us. GO. GET. MY. DAUGHTER."

Both Inuyasha and Kagome took shelter from Sango's immense battle aura behind Shippou.

"I guess it's time for us to go." Kagome ventured hesitantly, trying to ignore the lethal glare Sango was giving them. "I'll go grab my things."

"I'll come with you!" Inuyasha yelped, racing after her.

"What'd I miss?" Shippou asked curiously.


	18. Chapter 18

Oh MAN. You never realize how much you rely on internet until it is snatched from you. I've been about as charming as a cat in a bath while my inter*crack*webs were away. I watched Dark Angel to try to chill out and drool over Logan for awhile but even that fine mo-fo could not alleviate my suffering. Alas such is the fate of moi. I'm sure you're like "stfu I wanna read the story!" So without further ado I give you... whatever chapter this is. I've lost count.

-Az.

* * *

"We'll definitely need this… and this… and this… but not this…" Kagome had dumped out her entire backpack, collapsing in the sides and synching the straps until it was the size of a large daypack.

She'd changed into her boots and demon hide jacket and strapped a long knife to her forearm in addition to the one in her boot. She put her bow and arrows on top of the bag and was ready to go.

Inuyasha was waiting at the top of the stairs, bouncing up and down impatiently. He kept looking over his shoulder as though expecting the bed-ridden Sango to pop out of the bushes and yell at him.

"Wait a minute! I just got back and Kagome's here so why the heck are they running off and why do you keep saying Omi's gone?" Shippou's voice rang out from the house. "And WHEN did you get pregnant AGAIN Sango?"

Inuyasha grabbed Kagome by the backpack and tossed her over his shoulder cave-man style, leaping down the stairs. "I don't really want to hear that story if it's the same to you."

"S-sure n-no p-problem." Kagome stammered as Inuyasha hit each step and his shoulder and her sternum collided. "J-just s-slow d-down when y-you g-get to the bottom." She finished as he put her down at the base of the steps. "Phew, thanks."

"Come on, I want to get to the western mountains before sunup. Let me carry this thing, can you keep up without it weighing you down?"

"That's going to be impossible! It's less than three hours until the sun rises and that's at least a day of traveling." She unclipped her hip straps and swung her backpack onto his shoulders, reaching around him to grab the straps. "Give me a second to adjust this thing…"

Inuyasha gulped and blushed as she loosened the straps on his shoulders and pulled the ones on his hips. "Well that's annoying, your hips are close to the same size as mine." She smiled up at him and seemed to suddenly realize how close they were. "And you're… a lot bigger than me." She blushed and looked back down at the straps.

"Girls are supposed to have hips." He said softly. "And I like yours."

Kagome snapped everything in place and synched it down. "You should feel most of the weight here." She laced her fingers under the strap at his waist and tugged.

He nodded mutely and pulled her hand off. "Ready to run?"

She tried not to look hurt and nodded.

"Kagome…"

"We're wasting time, let's go." She took off running west, faster than he would have thought possible for her, as fast or faster than Miroku in his prime.

With the pack slowing him down he barely had to monitor his stride to keep from outpacing her. After running without speaking for an hour Inuyasha tired of the silence.

"So… Any theories on who this demon Aruji is? Maybe one of Naraku's incarnations?"

Kagome shot a look over her shoulder and barely missed running into a tree. "Naraku is dead, like in pieces, burned and scattered into the ocean dead. None of his incarnations survived, you know that."

He did, but he had gotten her to talk to him which was his primary goal. "I guess you're right."

"But you already knew that." She didn't look at him, carefully picking the fastest way down the steep mountainside.

"I guess I did." He stayed quiet, hoping she would choose to keep the conversation going.

When they reached the bottom and had a clear path to run for awhile she said, "I think Naraku is always who we're going to think of as the strongest demon around when there were so many before him that were strong, he was just the most devious."

"Makes sense."

They reached another mountainside and she jumped up it, racing to the top. "What kind of demon steals children?" She wondered, the anger clear in her voice.

"A lot of demons feed on souls. Kids have really pure souls, and Omi had spiritual powers on top of that. If this Aruji person gets more powerful by eating kid's souls then eating the souls of kids with power would be like superfood to her."

"So do you think she can't eat the souls of adults?"

"She probably can, but adults have more… conflicted souls. Children haven't lived long enough to taint theirs."

They didn't speak again for another hour but the silence this time was less strained. Inuyasha knew Kagome was thinking about what he had said, and he could tell by the set of her shoulders that she was upset.

As they crested a mountain he called for a quick break.

"Eat something, we're getting close and you need the energy." He fiddled with the snaps on the backpack but couldn't figure out the clasp.

With a sigh Kagome unzipped the top pocket, pulling out an energy bar. "You don't have to take it off to get things out."

With an angry growl he turned and grabbed her arms. "Talk to me Kagome. You're still mad, I can tell."

"I'm not mad."

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"I'M NOT MAD!" She yelled at him.

He shook her and put his face down to hers. "Look you idiot, if you didn't stop touching me back there we would have never gotten anywhere!"

"You could have just said that!" She tried to hide her sudden blush.

"I tried! But you were all _come on we're wasting time_." He said with a falsetto voice.

"I do NOT sound like that!"

Inuyasha glared at her. "Now you're just looking for a reason to stay mad."

With a growl of her own Kagome ripped the wrapping off her bar and bit into it.

"Jeez what'd that thing ever do to you?"

"Can it dog boy!" She devoured half the bar and stuck the other half in Inuyasha's mouth as he opened it to speak again. "Let's go." The words were muffled by cliff bar but audible.

He grabbed her by her collar and steered her in the right direction as she tried to take off on him.

As they crested the next hilltop an expansive estate spread out before them and Kagome skidded to a halt. Her eyes scanned the high walls, battlements and tower that was outlined in the pale pre-dawn light.

"Woah. Nice crib." She said.

"What? Sesshomaru is not a baby last I checked."

"Say WHAT?" She rounded on him. "I so do not want to talk to Lord Fluffy first thing in the morning."

"Lord _what_?" A chilling voice asked as Sesshomaru stepped from the shadows. "Your scent preceded you… _little brother_."

Inuyasha took a moment to crawl back into the skin he'd jumped out of. After that he took a moment to remember how to breathe. "Don't DO that!"

Kagome could have sworn that she saw the corner of Sesshomaru's mouth twitch, but she hadn't been around him in a while so she was rusty reading his barely expressions.

When Inuyasha had collected himself he looked up at Sesshomaru with ill-concealed distaste. "I need information."

"Sesshomaru?" A woman's voice rang out from on top of the gate. "Visitors?"

"Get inside." Sesshomaru said shortly, disappearing into the shadows again.

Inuyasha followed, muttering about how creepy his family was. It only took a few minutes of walking to reach the gate which was opened just wide enough to let them pass through. On the other side was the woman whose voice they had heard. She was tall and willowy in a white silk sleeping kimono with a blue obi. Her face was as white as marble and her eyes were such a pale blue that they appeared to glow.

"Welcome, you must be tired, come rest." She waved a hand to the building behind her.

Sesshomaru stepped to her side and—to Inuyasha and Kagome's complete astonishment—brushed some stray strands of black hair behind her ear. Which for Sesshomaru was like bending her over backwards and kissing her like there was no tomorrow.

The look the woman gave him as his fingers trailed from her cheek made Kagome blush. Her face didn't change expression but her eyes held an aching all-consuming emotion that Kagome could only label as somewhere in between deep love and possession.

"Please, come inside." The woman turned back to the gaping couple with eyes that completely hid what she was feeling or thinking. "I am Miko."

Kagome and Inuyasha looked at each other, Sesshomaru's mate was unlike anything either of them thought to see him paired with. She hadn't looked at Kagome like she was human pond scum and she hadn't looked at Inuyasha like he was a puppy with mange. When she and Sesshomaru walked back to their palace Kagome mouthed '_Miko?_' to Inuyasha, who shrugged and followed them.

Miko gestured for them to take a seat and poured four cups of tea. "What can we help you with?"

Sesshomaru glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Beloved they came looking for help. They are family, let's treat them accordingly."

"Family?" The word was as warm and cuddly as an iceberg.

"Yes. The group of people that you are related to by blood or fate, a bond that is unique. Accept that you have one."

Sesshomaru let out a the smallest sigh and Kagome had the strangest feeling that he was being huffy. She fought to keep her face straight.

"We have no bond, Inuyasha charges blindly into all situations, he is hot headed-"

"Indecisive." Kagome interjected.

"Rude-" He continued.

"Jealous." She helped.

"An altogether childish fool." He finished with a careless flick of his long hair.

"-With a wicked temper." Kagome smiled sweetly at Inuyasha who was glaring at her.

Inuyasha took several deep breaths until he had his temper under control and cleared his throat. "So… There's this demon that we need information on. I figured since she seems to be powerful you'd know about her."

"We need more details than that. Several powerful new demons have appeared since Naraku was defeated." Miko replied as Sesshomaru was still acting cold and snooty.

"She's taking children. Powerful children." Kagome said.

"Aruji." Miko nodded. "I thought she may turn up again."

"You know her?" Inuyasha asked suspiciously.

"She is my sister."


	19. Chapter 19

Wow. And she updates a year later, almost to the day. I am so sorry it took me so long to get my butt in gear! I fell out of love with this story and my ADD kicked in and I found so many awesome stories I wanted to write and... well, you know the rest. I read through the whole thing and decided that I wanted to know how this ends! Also I found a few other authors that I like on fanfic and wanted to kill them when they didn't update FOREVER. Then I felt guilty. Then I read this story again and edited every single chapter AND changed the title to something a bit less childish. So this chapter may seem a bit choppy but what you should focus on is that it's the first of many! I will finish this even if it kills me... and it probably will.

XOXO

Azure.

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Chapter 19

"Inuyasha you idiot slow down!" Kagome ran down the hall after the retreating half-demon.

"No way! Clearly I came to the wrong place for information!" Inuyasha snapped back.

Kagome managed to snag a fuzzy ear and jerk him to a halt with a sharp yelp. Ignoring his exclamations of pain she dragged him back to the room where Sesshomaru and his mate sat waiting patiently. With a final tug she tossed Inuyasha down and pinned him with a knee in the middle of his back.

"He's ready to listen to you now, please continue." She said calmly as though it were the most normal thing in the world.

Miko raised an eyebrow. "I hope he's ready to listen to a story, this might take a little while. Try to make yourself comfortable."

"This is about as comfortable as he's going to get until he decides that you are a good guy."

"And you think I am a 'good guy'?" Miko raised a straight dark eyebrow.

"Withholding judgment until I get all the information."

Miko nodded shortly. "I understand and I will attempt to give an unbiased account of my life so you can form an objective opinion."

"You needn't concern yourself with their opinion of you." Sesshomaru stated in that same neutral tone he used for everything, but his cold stare dared them to judge his mate.

"While your opinion is most valuable to me, I do want to try to build a relationship. This is our family Beloved, your brother and his mate." She smiled faintly in the direction of the two sitting across from her. "To begin my story; I was born around the same time as the jewel that is in your body now."

She raised her hand in a placating gesture as Kagome's jaw dropped. "I have no interest in the jewel so stop looking worried, it is like an estranged cousin to me. Because of the jewel and Midoriko's battle with the demons, Aruji, myself and three others were… created. Like side-effects of a flood. Everyone remembers the water, and the path it cut, but there are also the fields it flooded and the wells it filled… And the lives it took. Like the jewel represents the four aspects of the soul and the balance and war between those aspects, we represented the elements that compose a physical body. I am water, you have met both earth and air, can you guess what Aruji is?"

Kagome thought, forgetting that she was kneeling carefully on Inuyasha's back and leaned her full weight on him.

"Ow! Get offa me!"

She leaned back, keeping him pinned but taking most of the weight off her knee. "… I haven't met her, just seen the after-effects of her work. From Miroku's wounds and her calculated manner I would say… metal?"

"Clever girl. As you know, Air was consumed by Naraku and from that he created his incarnation Kagura. We sense the jewel and those of us who are foolish seek it, Air sought it and found Naraku instead. Fire was just as foolish though he self-destructed as fire is wont to do when there is nothing left to burn. Earth, who you may have known as Gakusaijin was also destroyed indirectly by Naraku. Metal was always hard, cold, calculating. Now she is also power-hungry and has changed her name so that she can rid herself of the qualities that are Metal but do not suit who she wants to be. Things like stability, consistency, protection."

Kagome rocked back onto her heels and pulled her backpack to her. "I'm listening. Just give me a second…" She pulled a pink rhinestone collar out of a side pocket with an attached matching leash and clipped them on Inuyasha. "Keeping him still and processing what you're saying is too much at one time."

"What the-? Is this… did you just… _collar_ me?" Inuyasha asked indignantly, tugging at the leash.

"Hush. I want to hear all this. So you and Aruji are the only ones left. But how did you end up with Sesshomaru?"

"You are SO dead meat for this!" Inuyasha growled, turning in circles to get at the collar's clasp.

"SIT."

"Sesshomaru first found me when I was still just an elemental in Midoriko's cave. Fire and I had trouble keeping a stable form but I was better since ice is a facet of water, Naraku gave Air a physical form and similarly I created one for myself." She pushed the hair away that draped across her forehead, exposing the same mark that the priestess Midoriko had carried. "Living bodies are made primarily from water anyway, I just used Midoriko's remains to give my form shape and in turn allowed part of Midoriko's spirit to share that body and experience life again." She smiled gently. "That is why I changed my name to Miko."

Inuyasha had finally pushed himself off the ground and was sitting cross-legged, his sword tucked in the crook of his arm. "So you're sharing your body with a dead woman?"

Kagome smacked the back of his head with an open palm. "You're one to talk since you _still_ want to share your body with a dead woman."

Miko raised both eyebrows but turned back to Inuyasha, answering the red-faced demon's question. "In a way yes, we share this body but we are also one and the same. Like you have your demon and human halves but are part of one living being."

Kagome considered this. "That still didn't answer my question."

"Ah yes. When we first met I felt a bond with him, but at the time I had chosen to stay in Midoriko's cave so as not to draw the attention of Naraku." She held up her hand at Inuyasha's derisive snort. "You must understand that those who chose to fight Naraku at that time were only being consumed by him and giving him more power, I did not know how to fight him without doing so and thus stayed in hibernation. I emerged only once when Sesshomaru came to examine the birthplace of the Shikon jewel." She gave the demon a look with so much unspoken love in it that Kagome felt an instant understanding. "When he left I wanted to follow, but was by that time so much a part of Midoriko's spirit that I was tied to the place. That was when I created the body. It took a long time, as creating life seems to do, and when I finally had form Naraku had already been defeated and Sesshomaru was half-way across the Western lands."

At this Sesshomaru stood, brushing the back of Miko's neck on his way up. "Kimi is awake."

She nodded and watched him go.

"So how do we kill her?" Inuyasha asked, getting right to the point.

"Honey let's start with finding her okay?" Kagome patted his head.

"Finding her is not a problem, she has created a home for herself in the abandoned mines near where the demon slayer's village used to be. I can get a map and show you how to get there."

"Thank you but our friend was born and raised there."

Their conversation was cut short by a roar of fury so loud it shook all of the birds out of the nearby trees. Miko leapt to her feet and ran into the courtyard, moving unusually quickly so even Inuyasha had to push to keep up. Kagome joined them after she retrieved her bow and arrows from her pack.

In the yard was a terrifying sight. Sesshomaru was halfway through his change into his true form and Aruji was standing defiantly before him, a little girl tucked under her arm. The girl had hair that was so silver it looked almost tinged blue and her mother's pale eyes. She was kicking madly and tearing at Aruji's hair.

Silently, as Sesshomaru finished his transformation, a great serpent of water raised out of the well behind Aruji and before she could react, had split into two heads, one biting down on her whole body and turning into ice and the other plucking the little girl from her arms and carrying her swiftly to Miko. Once Miko had the girl she flicked her wrist and sent the majority of the water back to the well with the exception of the ice that held Aruji. Only then did she turn on her heel and take the girl inside.

When they were gone Sesshomaru almost delicately bit the ice in half, tossing the top half—that included Aruji's head and chest—as far as he could. Kagome watched in partial fascination as the bottom half seemed to turn to liquid silver and start bleeding into the ground. Without thinking she strung her bow and shot what was left of Aruji with a sacred arrow, effectively destroying her mercurial body.

Once the dust had settled Sesshomaru bled back into his normal form.

Inuyasha slammed his sword point first into the ground with a growl. "Damnit! Couldn't you have left anything for me?"

Despite his irate state Kagome had to smother a smile as she looked at him and saw the pink rhinestone collar still glittering around his neck. They followed Sesshomaru inside where Miko was holding the little girl, Kimi.

The girl looked up at her father with eyes that were too old for her body, then back at her mother and said, "Father. Finish the demon."

Kagome started, the girl didn't look more than two.

"Demon children are born with old souls." Inuyasha told her, correctly interpreting her surprise.

Miko stood. "No. He will stay here with you and I will go."

"Absolutely not." Sesshomaru said coldly.

"I am the only one who knows how to destroy Aruji." She didn't even look defiant, there wasn't a question in her mind of what the correct course of action would be.

"Isn't she dead?" Kagome asked hesitantly, knowing and dreading the answer.

"Did you destroy her head?" Miko asked, not looking away from Sesshomaru.

"No." Kagome replied.

"Then she's still alive and those children are still actively in danger."

"We were planning on going, if you want to help you can round up any other demons whose children have been stolen and tell them where to go, then we can attack as one." Inuyasha said, meeting Sesshomaru's eyes and coming to some silent agreement that Kagome couldn't quite catch.

Miko's expression didn't change but Kagome felt the auras in the room build steadily. Finally Miko's jaw tightened and she nodded once, but at Sesshomaru, not Inuyasha. "You two can rest here before you leave. I will go immediately to check if any children nearby have been taken."

"Thank you." Kagome suddenly felt the weight of everything come crashing down on her. In the past twelve hours alone she'd gotten a puppy, processed _everything_ with Inuyasha, fought a demon twice and delivered a baby. She was tired.

Miko led them down a long hall and to a big empty room with sleeping pads rolled into a corner. "You can both rest, the gate is warded and we have guards. Even as we speak they are warding the entire ground where Aruji snuck in through."

Kagome bowed her thanks and unrolled an overlarge pad, tossing a blanket on it. She slipped out of her jeans, then held her hand to Inuyasha who had been examining every corner of the room and out the window.

When he finally started to lay down beside her she shook her head sleepily and unlatched the collar around his neck, tugged off his haori, then despite his mild resistance, his white shirt.

"What..?" He started to ask but stopped when she pulled him down to lay beside her, kissing him.

"I want to feel your skin." She whispered into his mouth. "I feel safe when I can touch your skin."

The kiss was comparatively chaste but Kagome's hands running across his chest and stomach did not induce sleepy thoughts. Even as she was drifting off she brushed over his nipple and down to the waist of his pants, curling her fingers just inside and making his stomach clench with desire.

_What did I do to deserve this torture?_ He thought, trying to somehow find the release of sleep as easily as Kagome had. Finally he gave in only slightly to his body's demands and pulled Kagome tight to him, feeling the pleasurable and painful ache caused by her stomach pressing against him.

"You're dangerous." He murmured, eyes closing as he lost himself in her scent. "You make me want to consume you."


	20. Chapter 20

**Okay, sorry for the delay, I had finals and six days of classes last week, it was CRAZY. Oi. Anyway, Please R&R so I know people actually LIKE the story still so I won't get disenchanted (again) and abandon it like a bad story mommy.**

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Kagome opened her eyes as golden light filtered in through the window above her futon. It took her a moment to work out what direction the light was coming from and she stretched, pushing up to a sitting position. Inuyasha was gone. She still felt the slight twinge of panic and wondered if it would ever truly fade.

With deliberately slow movements she pulled on her jeans and opened the sliding door. She wandered back to the area that she was familiar with, finding the room they'd heard Miko's story in vacant and the courtyard empty as well.

"Kiiimiiii!" A figure turned a corner and squealed in delight when she caught sight of Kagome, launching herself at the girl. "Kagome!"

Kagome squinted, trying to place where she'd seen the teenage girl before. She was pretty with a colorful expensive-looking kimono and an off-center half ponytail. It was the ponytail and huge smile that jogged Kagome's memory and she gasped, running the last few steps to meet the girl in a massive hug.

"Rin!" She pulled back to get a better look at the girl. "Wow! You're so beautiful!"

The girl blushed and smiled. "Not as beautiful as you or Miko." She didn't seem disheartened by the statement and Kagome smiled.

"Thank you, but Miko has a definite advantage over both of us, being the embodiment of water and all." Kagome winked. "How have things been here?"

"Wonderful!" Rin smiled again but her expression dropped as though she'd remembered something important. "Ach! I was chasing Kimi! Have you seen her?" She spun around wildly as though the little girl would suddenly appear.

A giggle floated up from the well and Rin froze mid-turn, a knowing smile tugging at her mouth.

"Hmm… I wonder where Kimi could have gone…" She sidled casually sideways towards the well. "Maybe she went back inside!" Rin stomped her feet, stepping more and more quietly in place to simulate walking away and ducked down next to the well.

Kagome crossed her arms and leaned against the porch as a blue-silver haired head slowly peeked out from the well, water rolling underneath her like a cushion. Kimi leaned out and as soon as most of her body was over the lip of the well Rin jumped to her feet and snatched the little girl.

"Hah! Caught you!"

"Noooo! Rin ALWAYS wins!" Kimi pouted and crossed her arms.

"I'm sure you'll win if you keep practicing." Rin grinned and pressed a kiss to the pouting girl's forehead.

"Rin! Kimi!" Miko's voice rang out and both girls looked instantly guilty. "Finish your lessons before noon and we can eat together."

"Okay!" Rin shouted back, tucking Kimi under one arm and marching her back the direction they'd come from. "See you later Kagome!"

"Bye!" Kagome waved and sighed when the girls were out of sight, letting her hand drop. "I want… puppies."

A sharp intake of breath made her look behind her to see Inuyasha standing in the doorway. He was giving her a look that made her blush.

"Hi." She smiled and unconsciously twisted her hair into a knot, wrapping a hair tie around to keep it in place.

"Hey." He bent to kiss her softly. "Good to see you're awake."

Kagome was surprised by the display of affection and resolved to mention puppies more often. "Yeah… When are we leaving?"

"As soon as you're ready. We can make it within spitting distance of the mines before nightfall." He frowned. "I'd like to try to get Omi back today but…"

"We won't be able to help her if we're exhausted." Kagome finished for him. "We'll camp and make our move at dawn tomorrow."

Inuyasha nodded absently, hand on his tetsusaiga. They stood in comfortable silence, looking at the gardens of the courtyard. It was a beautiful estate, well kept and quiet with only the sounds of nature and Rin and Kimi's bare feet on the hardwood floors somewhere inside.

"Do you want a house like this?" Inuyasha asked suddenly, watching Kagome out of the corner of one golden eye.

She shrugged. "It's beautiful here…"

He sensed her hesitation. "But?"

She waved an arm expansively, taking in the whole space before them. "It's just… too big."

"Too big?"

"And too… polished. I don't know, it's hard to explain." Her frown suddenly changed to a smile. "My dream house would be more rustic, like a lodge but smaller."

"Smaller than Sango and Miroku's?"

"A little, but close to their place, close enough to walk to but far enough so we don't have to hear anything we don't want to. Maybe on the other side of the waterfall, I liked being able to hear the stream from our bedroom at night. And I like the style of their home, the inner courtyard like this but with practical gardens instead of aesthetically pleasing ones. Like an herb garden." She sighed and her eyes were unfocused, seeing her dream home. "And I'd like a lemon tree."

"Okay." Inuyasha went back inside, leaving her on the porch.

"Okay?" She stared after him.

"Kagome?" Miko approached her from the opposite direction, carrying a tray of food. "I brought you something to eat, you must be hungry."

"Thank you." Kagome gratefully accepted the food and knelt on the porch to eat.

"Did Inuyasha tell you the plan?" Miko sat beside her when Kagome gestured for her to join her and shook her head.

"Just that we're going to run as far as we can tonight and make our move at dawn."

"Sesshomaru was right, he's really not one for plans is he?" Miko smiled. "I suppose his boldness is endearing in its own way."

Kagome nodded her agreement.

"The plan that Sesshomaru and I have compromised on is such; we will meet you at dawn tomorrow outside Aruji's mine."

"What about Kimi?" Kagome asked, concerned at the thought of leaving the little girl behind unprotected.

"Rin and Jakin are taking her to Totosai's forge on Ah-Un after lunch. They will wait there until we come for them."

"What about the others? Were any other children taken from the area?"

Miko shook her head. "I believe that Aruji came to this place specifically because Kimi is my child. No others were targeted."

"That's good. The fewer hostages the better." Kagome finished her food and sighed. "We better be moving along. Thank you so much for your hospitality." She stood and bowed to Miko who returned the gesture.

"The pleasure was all mine. It is my sincerest wish that the two of us can mend the rift between our mates."

Kagome nodded and smiled. "That's going to take a LOT of work but I look forward to it."

"Yo! Kagome!" Inuyasha emerged from inside the house again, holding her backpack. "How the heck does this thing work?"

Kagome took the pack and helped Inuyasha into it, clipping it around his waist and explaining how it worked as she put it on.

"There, did you get all that?" She asked as she finished her instructions.

"Nope."

Kagome bit her lip to keep from "sit"ting him since he was carrying all their possessions.

"Here." Miko reemerged from in the house and handed Kagome a sheathed short-sword. "I noticed you carry a blade but have no real sword."

"I can't take this!" Kagome exclaimed, eyes betraying her desire to hold the light sword as they trailed over the length of the sheath.

"Yes you can. We are grateful that you were able to revive Inuyasha and I would like to offer you a gift, consider it a welcome-to-the-family present." Miko smiled and gently pushed the sword into Kagome's barely resistant hands.

"I… wow… Thank you." Kagome stared for a moment longer before looping the sword belt over her head and shoulder so it lay along her back. "Thank you so much!"

"Come on!" Inuyasha was already at the gate, looking back at her. "We're seeing them tomorrow, quit it with the long goodbye!"

Kagome rolled her eyes and bowed to Miko. "He's right, we'll see you at dawn tomorrow."

"Farewell until then." Miko bowed back and watched as they left.

"I like her." Kagome stated as they started running.

"Yeah. How weird is it that both me and Sesshomaru would end up mated to priestesses?" Inuyasha shook his head ruefully. "Life is strange."

"Yes." Kagome smiled and stretched her legs, taking longer strides.

It felt good to be moving again, to have purpose. After all the tumult of the previous days and all the muddled-up emotions she was grateful to have such a clear goal in mind. Defeat the bad guy, save the hostages, go from there. In some ways, life was easier in the feudal era.

They ran hard, pushing themselves past the point where they could multi-task and hold a conversation. Both were panting and sweating when they spotted the mountain that served as their landmark. The mines were dug into the opposite side and they planned on camping a few miles from the entrance.

"Do you need a break or can you make it?" Inuyasha asked as they paused for a moment, passing a water bottle back and forth. It was one of the few pieces of technology that hadn't changed much in the intervening years and Kagome didn't even have to explain how to use it.

"I'm okay." She kept her response short intentionally, not wanting him to know how winded their run had really made her.

"Good." He capped the bottle and returned it to the side-pocket of the backpack, taking off running as soon as it was secure.

"Oh sweet Buddha kill me now." Kagome muttered, following after a few more precious breaths.

It took less time to get to a good camping spot than she thought, but every minute felt like hours in the steep upward ascent. When they finally stopped for good Kagome slumped down on a boulder before her legs gave out completely, laying back and massaging her aching calves.

"There's a stream nearby…" Inuyasha paused, listening intently before unclipping the backpack and letting it drop to the leaves, starting off around the mountain.

"I thought you didn't know how to work that thing!" Kagome exclaimed, pointing at the bag.

"I don't know how to put it on right. Taking it off is easy." He shrugged and kept going.

Kagome sighed and pushed herself up, stumbling a few steps before her jellied legs decided to work again. She found the water and wind-proof tarp rolled up at the top of the bag and unfurled it, staking it in the ground so it opened towards the mountain and gave the best protection from the wind. That done, she tied the other corners to trees, using the boulder she'd used moments before as a makeshift wall and the natural shrubbery in between the trees as a partial block so three sides were protected.

"Cozy." She smiled to herself, she hadn't been properly camping since she'd last been in the feudal era and she was a little excited, despite the gravity of the situation. The next item to emerge from the backpack was her graduation gift from Souta, a sleeping bag.

Kagome flushed as she realized that it wasn't just any sleeping bag, it was a double-wide zero degree bag, not something that was very easy to find. She'd been appreciative when she'd first received it but it wasn't until she unrolled it that she really appreciated how plush and warm the bag was with plenty of room for two occupants.

_I've gotten several great gifts today._ She thought happily, ignoring the fact that the sleeping bag had been in her possession for several months. She took her new short-sword off, taking a moment in the fading light to examine the blade. It was expertly crafted and sharp enough to effortlessly slice through the fallen branch Kagome tested it on.

"Hey…" Inuyasha trailed off as he approached and saw the small make-shift camp that Kagome had set up. "How'd all that fit in that little bag?"

"Lightweight weatherproof materials." She answered sagely. "They're super useful."

"Uh sure. There's a stream just over there if you wanted to check it out before the light fades." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder and settled onto a fallen tree in between the campsite and the stream so he could keep watch over both.

"Yes! Awesome!" Kagome leapt to her feet, quickly resheathing her sword and took her pack in the direction he indicated.

Inuyasha chuckled at her as she left, leaning back against a tree-trunk. It seemed that as long as Kagome played some role in his life he would never be bored. Often confused and in trouble but never bored.

Kagome glanced back to make sure Inuyasha was facing away before quickly removing the same white haori she'd used at Miroku and Sango's and a towel, stripping away her sweat-soaked clothes and taking a small bottle of environmentally-friendly soap to the stream. She jumped in quickly so as not to give herself time to chicken out. While she was grateful that the streams weren't made of snowmelt as it was not spring, the fall weather didn't make for a comfortable bath either.

She was already shivering by the time she popped back up out of the water, finding purchase on the smooth river rocks.

"What the hell? You'll get sick and _die_ taking a full bath in this weather!" Inuyasha was standing on the log now, glaring down at her.

"Ack! Sit!" She ordered, covering her breasts quickly and dropping back into the water.

She didn't give him time to recover, soaping up and rinsing off before he could pry himself from the forest floor. By the time he was mobile she had underwear and the haori on and double-knotted at the waist.

"Hmph. Peeping Tom." She sniffed but had to use the towel as she wrung her hair dry to hide her smirk as Inuyasha started indignantly protesting.

"It's not like I would _want_ to look at a-!"

"A _what_ exactly?" Kagome spun and glared at him challengingly.

"A… a…" He looked like he was frantically thinking of something to fill in the blank that wouldn't make her "sit" him again.

She let the haori slip off one shoulder.

"Uh… " He trailed off, transfixed by the smooth skin.

She let the other shoulder begin slipping. "A what?" She repeated.

He swallowed hard. Somewhere in the unoccupied part of his brain he dimly realized that there was something odd about the forest, that there were too few natural noises and one unnatural sound he couldn't place.

Kagome blinked, she'd meant to tease Inuyasha just enough to make him uncomfortable but now that she'd started taking her clothing off, she realized she didn't really want to stop. With the light of the moon and the faint hypnotic music that was drifting through the woods she wanted to have Inuyasha's naked flesh against her own.

She let her hair fall forward so it concealed her breasts as she let the short outer garment slide off her upper body. It was a chill night but she didn't feel the cold as the heat of her skin made even the light fabric of the few clothes she wore feel too hot.

She passed a hand in front of her, making a smooth gesture that encompassed her entire body. "Don't you want to look at me Inuyasha? Don't you think I'm pretty?"

* * *

Deep in the forest at the entrance to the mines the demonic mistress Aruji smiled coldly to herself as she began playing her flute in earnest. She laced her tune with power, more power than she'd used before when the priestess and half-demon had somehow broken free of her spell. This time they would not free themselves. This time they would mate.

Aruji could tell from the first time she'd cast her spell that the girl was near the middle of her cycle and thus fertile. This time she was directly in the middle and if she and the half-demon mated then there was no chance she wouldn't conceive, especially with the added boost of Aruji's spell. She knew this would work as it was a spell she'd practiced before on her partial-sibling and the dog demon lord. They had conceived as well but it had taken barely a nudge from Aruji to convince them to try, they were less disinclined to procreate than the pair on the mountain before her.

All she had to do after the point of conception was wait for their pathetic attempt of a rescue, luring them with the bait she'd collected, capture the priestess and make her escape. It wouldn't take long for the child within the girl to develop a soul and the instant it did Aruji would consume it and become the most powerful creature in the world as the witch-child had foretold.

_I see my plan before me._ Aruji thought wickedly, not missing a beat on her flute. _I see it and all else shall wither and die in the face of my power._


End file.
